By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday scheduled oral arguments for tomorrow in the high-profile appeals filed by former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, challenging their convictions in a major corruption case involving £190 million in allegedly misused British crime proceeds.
A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and including Justice Muhammad Asif will hear Criminal Appeal No. 63 of 2025, filed by Khan, and Criminal Appeal No. 64 of 2025, filed by Bibi. Both appeals contest sentences handed down by an accountability court in January that exceeded seven years in prison under the Pakistan Penal Code.
The listings appear on a supplementary cause list issued late on Wednesday by the registrar’s office. Also pending before the same bench are several miscellaneous applications, including requests to suspend the couple’s sentences and the prosecution’s objections to those requests. The development follows a hearing just a day earlier in which the bench, considering separate petitions for suspension of sentence in the same £190 million case, signaled it would move swiftly on the main appeals.
Earlier this month, Chief Justice Dogar told Khan’s lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, that if arguments began in earnest the court could resolve the appeals within seven days. “We will fix the appeal for two days every week — you meet your client and assist the court,” the chief justice said.
Khan, 73, has been imprisoned at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail since August 5, 2023. He is currently serving a 14-year sentence in the £190 million case, also known as the Al-Qadir Trust case. Bibi was sentenced to seven years in the same matter. Both were convicted on Jan. 17, 2025, by Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed Rana in Islamabad.T he case centers on allegations that Khan and Bibi improperly accepted billions of rupees and hundreds of kanals of land from the Bahria Town real estate empire to facilitate the legalization of roughly Rs50 billion — the Pakistani rupee equivalent of £190 million at the time — that Britain’s National Crime Agency had identified and returned to Pakistan during Khan’s government.
Prosecutors from the National Accountability Bureau contend that in December 2019, while still prime minister, Khan approved a confidential settlement with the British agency without proper disclosure. The funds originated from assets seized from a Pakistani property tycoon Malik Riaz; the National Crime Agency had described the matter as a civil settlement and explicitly stated it did not constitute a finding of guilt. The bureau filed its formal reference in December 2023 and framed charges against Khan and Bibi on Feb. 27, 2024.
The appeals come amid a broader legal onslaught against Khan, who was removed from power in April 2022 through a parliamentary no-confidence vote. He faces dozens of cases ranging from corruption to terrorism allegations, many of which his supporters dismiss as politically motivated attempts by the military-backed establishment to sideline him.
In a separate development, a banking court in Islamabad has also fixed for Thursday the hearing in a prohibited foreign funding case against Khan. Authorities have submitted a charge sheet in that matter and named the former prime minister as the principal accused. The high court has shown impatience with delays in the £190 million proceedings. In March, it imposed a Rs100,000 fine on the National Accountability Bureau’s special prosecutor for what the bench described as delaying tactics.
Khan’s legal team has long argued that the convictions rest on shaky procedural grounds and that the sentences should be suspended pending appeal. The government and the accountability bureau maintain that the case represents a clear example of high-level corruption during Khan’s tenure. The dual hearings scheduled for Thursday — one in the high court on the corruption appeals and one in the banking court on the funding case — will add to the already crowded legal calendar for Pakistan’s most prominent opposition figure. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, continues to insist he is the country’s rightful leader and that the cases against him are designed to prevent his return to politics ahead of future elections.
Legal analysts following the case say the high court’s willingness to set a compressed schedule for arguments could bring a resolution within weeks, though any final ruling is likely to be appealed further, possibly to the Supreme Court.
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