ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -A Pakistani court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, in a graft case, local TV ARY News said, a move that could lead to her rearrest two months after she was freed from jail on bail.
Bushra Khan, known more commonly as Bushra Bibi, a term that denotes respect, was released from prison in October after being detained for nine months over an ongoing case involving the illegal sale of state gifts during her husband’s tenure in office from 2018 to 2022.
Both she and Khan, who is currently imprisoned pending other trials, are accused of allegedly selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees that Khan received during his premiership and which belonged in state possession. They both deny the charges.
Bibi, 50, who mobilised thousands of supporters from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to demand his release during massive protests last month, was forced to escape to the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is ruled by the party, after a paramilitary force broke up the rally in Islamabad.
The court in Islamabad issued a fresh warrant in her name in the same case on Thursday, ARY News reported, potentially allowing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s anti-graft agency, which enjoys jurisdiction across the country, to arrest her.
The protests turned violent and Khan’s party alleged, without immediately providing evidence, that hundreds of its supporters had suffered gunshot wounds, leaving nearly a dozen dead.
The government has denied it, saying no protesters were killed.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid; Writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Asif Shahzad; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
