ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a graft case alleging they accepted a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for large sums of laundered money, officials said.
The case is the second to indict Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, over acts of corruption allegedly committed while the former cricket star turned Islamist politician was in office.
Prosecutors accuse the couple of using their family’s charity to set up a university on land gifted to them by tycoon Malik Riaz. In return, the businessman was allegedly given 190 million British pounds ($240 million) in laundered money that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities.
Khan, who in April 2022, is currently serving multiple prison terms and has some 170 legal cases pending against him on charges ranging from corruption to inciting people to violence and terrorism. The couple earlier was convicted in a graft case on charges of selling state gifts while in office.
Khan has denied wrongdoing and insisted since his arrest last year that all the charges against him are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.
He was barred from running in the , or PML-N, emerged as the largest presence in the ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Assembly, or lower house of the parliament. Khan's rival, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is on track to form a coalition government when the parliament meets for its inaugural session.
Khan's party on Tuesday announced nationwide protests on Saturday against alleged rigging in the election.
That came hours after Khan was brought before the judge at the high security court set up inside Adiala Prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where he is serving his prison terms concurrently.
Bibi, who is imprisoned at the couple's home in Islamabad, was brought to the court in a security convoy. The judge adjourned the proceedings until next month, Khan's legal team said.
Separately, Khan and Bibi have been sentenced to seven years in prison each on charges that their 2018 wedding violated marriage laws, allegedly because insufficient time had lapsed between Bibi's previous divorce and their union.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party condemned Tuesday's proceedings as “one sided.†It said Khan's legal team has had limited access to him, and the media have been barred from covering the trial.
Lawyer Salman Safdar, who represents Khan and Bibi, told reporters later Tuesday that the two are being treated “in an objectionable and condemnable manner.†He said the legal team has filed appeals and he hopes for an acquittal soon.
Khan has so far been convicted on , and in three separate verdicts and sentenced to 10, 14 and seven years respectively. Under Pakistani law, he is to serve the terms concurrently — meaning, the length of the longest of the sentences.
Khan is appealing all the convictions.
The new parliament's inaugural session is expected later this week, though the parliament has yet to confirm it.
Ishaq Dar, a senior leader in Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party, accused President Arif Alvi of trying to delay the ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Assembly on “technical grounds†but did not elaborate. Dar said that if Alvi did not convene the session, the outgoing speaker would do it as a constitutional requirement.
Dar also told reporters that the new prime minister will be voted on by parliament within a few days of the inaugural session. He added that he hopes the new government will be in place next week.
