Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi Take £190 Million Case Fight to Pakistan’s Supreme Court

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have escalated their legal battle in the £190 million corruption case, filing petitions with Pakistan’s Supreme Court after the Islamabad High Court rejected their bids to have their prison sentences suspended.

Background on the case

Khan and Bushra Bibi were convicted in January 2025 in what’s widely known as the Al-Qadir Trust case, with an accountability court sentencing the former PM to 14 years in prison and his wife to seven years. The case centers on allegations that the couple received billions of rupees worth of land from a private property developer in exchange for facilitating the legalization of funds — roughly £190 million — that had been repatriated to Pakistan from the United Kingdom during Khan’s time in office.

The Islamabad High Court had taken up their appeals against the conviction itself, but separately rejected their specific requests to suspend the sentences while those appeals proceed — reasoning that since the main appeal was already scheduled for hearing, a separate suspension request no longer served a clear purpose.

Arguments raised in the Supreme Court petition

According to the petitions filed by the couple’s legal team, several arguments are being put forward:

• Rejecting the sentence-suspension request, they argue, ran contrary to the basic requirements of justice — and even though the court accepted the petition was maintainable, it allegedly failed to properly weigh the substance of their case.
• The petition states that Khan developed an eye condition while in custody and was later moved outside the jail for treatment.
• Lawyers argue that denying release despite serious health concerns amounts to an injustice, and that solitary confinement has caused the couple significant psychological distress.
• The defense contends that the suspension plea was deliberately delayed, despite the fact that bail had previously been granted during the original trial and that the underlying allegations were said to have been unsubstantiated.

The petition further argues that courts are legally entitled to examine the substance of a case when deciding on a sentence-suspension request, and that dismissing the plea without a preliminary review of the evidence was a legal error. It also accuses Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of repeatedly seeking adjournments — a pattern the defense says has contributed to unnecessary delays in the appeal process.

Broader claims about the arrest and accountability process

Separately, PTI’s petition raises claims that the original arrest procedure used against Khan and Bushra Bibi was unlawful and improperly conducted, asserting that a higher court had previously ordered their release over the circumstances of that arrest. The party also argues that the accountability process was politically motivated rather than purely legal, and points to amendments in accountability law that, they say, now route final appeals through Pakistan’s Constitutional Bench rather than other forums — while maintaining that their current appeal doesn’t reference that constitutional route and should still be heard directly by the Supreme Court.

The petitions ultimately ask the Supreme Court to set aside the Islamabad High Court’s order, suspend the sentences, and direct the release of both Khan and Bushra Bibi.