Former premier Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi on Friday were convicted in the £190m Al-Qadir Trust case with the PTI founder being sentenced to 14 years in prison and a seven-year jail term handed to his wife.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana announced the verdict — previously delayed three times — in a makeshift courtroom at Adiala Jail. The court also imposed fines on Imran and Bushra, amounting to Rs1million and Rs500,000, respectively.

The couple was indicted in the case on Feb 27, 2024, shortly after the general elections.

Speaking to the media outside Adiala Jail ahead of the hearing, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had said: “You can guess the injustice that have occurred over the last two years.

“If a fair decision is made, Imran and Bushra will be acquitted,” he said.

The case alleges that Imran and Bushra Bibi obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd for legalising Rs50 billion that was identified and returned to the country by the United Kingdom during the previous PTI government.

On December 23 — the original date the verdict was supposed to be announced — an Islamabad accountability court postponed its verdict in the case until Jan 6 due to winter vacations.

On January 6, the decision could not be pronounced as Judge Nasir Javed Rana, who has been hearing the case, was on leave. In the subsequent hearing on Jan 13, the judge cited the reason for the delay as Imran and Bushra’s failure to appear before his accountability court at the Adiala Jail.

Imran was incarcerated in 2023 in a series of legal cases, which he claims were “politically motivated”. Last year, he was acquitted in the Toshakhana and Iddat cases but was newly charged in the Toshakhana 2 case.

The case

In December 2023, the National Accou­n­t­a­bility Bureau (NAB) had filed a corruption reference against Imran and seven others, including his wife, in connection with the Al-Qadir University Trust.

The reference filed by NAB alleged that Imran, who is currently in jail, played a “pivotal role in the illicit transfer of funds meant for the state of Pakistan into an account designated for the payment of land by Bahria Town, Karachi”. It also claimed that despite being given multiple opportunities to justify and provide information, the accused deliberately, with mala fide intention, refused to give information on one pretext or another.

Property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza Shehzad Akbar, and Zulfi Buk­hari are also among the suspects in this reference, but instead of joining the investigation and subsequent court proceedings, they absconded and were subsequently dec­lared proclaimed offenders (PO).

Farhat Shahzadi, a close friend of Imran’s spouse, and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim, a legal expert for the PTI government’s Assets Recovery Unit, were also declared POs. Subsequently, the properties of all six accused had been frozen.

As per the reference, Riaz’s son transferred 240 kanals of land to Shahzadi, while Bukhari received land under a trust, which NAB argued did not exist at the time of the transfer.

The prosecution further alleged that a trust was created only after the adjustment of £190m, raising doubts about its legitimacy and purpose.

In July 2024, Pervez Khattak, a key PTI leader back then who parted ways with the party in 2023 following the May 9 riots, testified before a court that he was a participant in the December 2019 meeting, where then-accountability adviser Mirza Shahzad Akbar produced a confidential deed in a sealed envelope for cabinet approval.

He said when he inquired about the document, Akbar said that it was an agreement of the Pakistani government with UK’s National Crime Agency for the refund of crime proceeds.

Days later, Azam Khan, Imran’s then-principal secretary, also testified that Akbar brought a note to seek the ex-PM’s appro­val to present the confidential deed in the cabinet meeting.

Zubaida Jalal, the minister of defence production in the PTI-led government, testified before a court that ministers were “kept in the dark” on the transfer of “crime proceeds” to Malik Riaz.