Imran Khan and wife indicted in £190 million corruption case

An accountability court in Pakistan on Tuesday, 27 February, indicted the country's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the £190 million Al Qadir corruption case.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana conducted the hearing at Rawalpindi's high-security Adiala Jail, where the 72-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder is currently incarcerated over multiple cases.

The judge read the chargesheet in Khan and Bushra's presence in the courtroom.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had initiated an investigation against Khan, his wife and others, regarding the alleged acquisition of hundreds of canals of land in the name of the Al Qadir University Trust, resulting in a reported loss of £190 million to the exchequer.

During the hearing, the court said that the statements of 58 witnesses will be recorded in the case, Geo News reported.

The judge asked Khan if he was guilty or not while framing charges against him.

"Why should I read the charge sheet when I know what's written in it?" Khan replied.

Both Khan and his wife then denied the charges against them.

The hearing was adjourned till 6 March and the court also ordered five witnesses on behalf of the NAB to attend the hearing.

Bushra, 49, has been imprisoned at Khan's Bani Gala residence in Islamabad ever since an accountability court sentenced the couple to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana corruption case.

The Al-Qadir Trust case pertains to the settlement of £190 million, which the UK's National Crime Agency sent to Pakistan after recovering the amount from Pakistani property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain.

Then-prime minister Khan, instead of depositing the money in the national treasury, apparently allowed the businessman to use the amount to partly settle a fine of about Rs 450 billion imposed by the Supreme Court some years ago.

The tycoon, in return, allegedly gifted about 57 acres of land to a trust set up by Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to establish the Al-Qadir University in the Sohawa area of the Jhelum district of Punjab.

Hussain, his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza Shehzad Akbar and Zulfi Bukhari are also among the suspects in the case, but instead of joining the investigation and subsequent court proceedings, they absconded and were subsequently declared as proclaimed offenders.