By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his third wife were acquitted on charges of marrying unlawfully by a Pakistan court on Saturday, yet he will not be freed after authorities issued fresh orders to arrest him.
The ruling came a day after his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won more seats in parliament, ramping up pressure on the country’s fragile ruling coalition which is grappling to stabilise a broken economy.
The couple were sentenced to seven years in February when a court found them guilty of breaking Islamic law by failing to observe the required interval between the divorce from a previous marriage of Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, and her marriage to Khan.
They had filed an appeal against their convictions.
“Both the appellants are acquitted of the charges,” said an order by the appeal court seen by Reuters.
“They are directed to be released forthwith if not required to be detained in any other case.”
It said the prosecution failed to prove its case against the couple.
Khan’s PTI party said authorities have issued fresh arrest warrants for him in three cases linked to violence against the military and other state installations that erupted following his brief arrest in May 2023.
An anti-terrorism court last week cancelled his bail in one of the May 9 cases registered against him and thousands of his supporters.
The party called it a “gimmick” aimed at prolonging his imprisonment.
Bibi is on bail in a land corruption case in which she is also co-accused with Khan, who is a free person after the latest acquittal, the party added.
All four jail sentences Khan received ahead of a February national election have now been overturned or suspended.
Jailed since last August, he was acquitted last month of charges of leaking state secrets. Two other corruption sentences have been suspended.
The PTI has warned that keeping Khan in jail despite Saturday’s decision will deepen a political crisis which has crippled the country of 240 million people since he was ousted in a parliament vote of confidence in 2022.
Khan blames his ouster on the country’s powerful military generals. No prime minister of Pakistan has completed a full five-year constitutional term since the country gained its independence in 1947.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; editing by William Mallard and Jason Neely)
