The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday fixed the hearing of former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi’s appeals against conviction in the £190 million corruption reference for April 30 (tomorrow).
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sardar Sarfaraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif will hear pleas tomorrow (Thursday).
The PTI founder and his wife had approached the IHC after they were handed 14-year and seven-year sentences, respectively, by Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed Rana in January 2025.
Earlier in March, the court imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) special prosecutor for using delaying tactics in proceedings in the £190 million corruption case involving Imran Khan and Bushra.
Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023, faces several cases ranging from corruption to terrorism, following his ouster from power through the opposition’s no-confidence motion in April 2022.
Al-Qadir Trust case
The Al-Qadir Trust case, commonly known as the £190m case, involved allegations that Imran and some others in 2019 adjusted Rs50 billion — amounting to £190 million at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government during his tenure as the country’s prime minister.
The concerned amount relates to a property tycoon’s assets, which were seized by the NCA during PTI’s rule. The British crime agency back then had said that the amount was supposed to be passed to the Government of Pakistan as its settlement with the Pakistani property tycoon was “a civil matter, and does not represent a finding of guilt”.
However, the NAB filed a reference in December 2023, followed by charges against Imran and his wife, Bushra Bibi, on February 27, 2024, alleging that a settlement with the British crime agency was reached and approved by then-prime minister Imran on December 3, 2019, without disclosing details of the confidential agreement.
