Pakistan ex-PM Khan’s wife back home after residence declared ‘sub-jail’
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Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 14 years in jail after being found guilty of graft.
PHOTO: AFP
ISLAMABAD – The wife of former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan – jailed alongside her husband on Jan 31 for 14 years after being found guilty of graft – is serving her sentence at home after their residence was officially declared a “sub-jail” by the authorities.
Bushra Bibi, a Muslim faith healer who met Khan when he approached her for spiritual guidance, handed herself in to the authorities on Jan 31, shortly after the pair were sentenced in a case involving the sale of foreign gifts received while he was premier.
Khan, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail on Jan 30 in a separate case after being found guilty of leaking state secrets, remains at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, where the trial was held.
The former international cricketer and his legal team have slammed the convictions and myriad other charges as a ploy by the military-led establishment to keep him from returning to power in elections next week.
Late on Jan 31, the government said Bibi had been transferred to her home on the outskirts of Islamabad from Adiala jail.
“The chief commissioner, Islamabad Capital Territory is pleased to declare the residence of convict Mst. Bushra Bibi... as sub-jail, as on Jan 31, till further orders,” read an order seen by AFP.
The Khan home – a rambling bungalow in a large compound surrounded by high concrete walls – is in the plush Bani Gala area of the capital.
Pakistan goes to the polls on Feb 8 in a ballot already marred by allegations of rigging, with Khan barred from running and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party subject to a massive crackdown.
Thousands of supporters were detained when riots broke out after Khan’s first arrest in 2023, with around 100 people awaiting trial in secretive military courts.
Bibi is a polarising figure whose marriage to Khan in 2018 – months before he was elected prime minister – both scandalised and titillated the nation.
Oxford-educated Khan earned a reputation as a playboy during his cricket-playing bachelor days, frequently photographed alongside society beauties and models.
His first marriage to Ms Jemima Goldsmith – the daughter of a British multi-millionaire – ended in divorce.
He then married Ms Reham Nayyar, a television journalist, who published a kiss-and-tell memoir after they divorced within a year.
Bibi, his third wife, rarely appears in public and wears a face-covering hijab when she does. AFP