ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -A court in Pakistan granted bail to the wife of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a case pertaining to the illegal sale of state gifts, his party said on Wednesday – a relief for the embattled politician who could see his spouse released from prison for the first time in months.
Both Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, are currently in jail on multiple charges including illegally selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) received during his 2018-2022 premiership from a state treasury known locally known as the “Toshakhana”.
The Islamabad High Court said Bibi was granted post-arrest bail for “reasons to be recorded later,” according to an order shared by the media office of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
The Khans deny the charges and say they are trumped up by the government to victimise the 72-year-old former cricket star, who remains widely popular and whose candidates won the most seats in February’s general election.
PTI said a surety bond had been submitted for Bibi’s release and hoped she would be freed from prison on Wednesday after “264 days of unlawful incarceration”.
Bibi, Khan’s third wife, was first arrested in January. She was acquitted on charges of her marriage with Khan violating Islamic injunctions, but quickly arrested again in the state gifts case before she would be released.
Khan has faced dozens of cases since he was removed as premier in 2022 and launched a protest movement against a coalition of his rivals led by current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The Sharif-led government says it does not interfere in the judicial process.
Khan’s standoff with powerful military generals, who he says back Sharif, has spawned the worst political turmoil in decades in the nation of 241 million people.
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
