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Lahore : Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan laughed when he heard the verdict against him the £190 million corruption case, his sister, Aleema Khan, claimed on Saturday.
Speaking to media outside a court in Lahore, she said, “When the PTI founder heard the verdict, he laughed. We have entrusted our matter to Allah”, Geo News reported.
An accountability court convicted Imran and his wife Bushra Bibi in the £190 million case — or the Al-Qadir Trust case — on Friday, sentencing the deposed prime minister to 14 years in prison.
Imran, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases but his party claims the latest conviction was being used to pressure him into stepping back from politics.
The conviction came a day after PTI leaders again met the government for talks aimed at easing political tensions. PTI’s Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan also met Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir recently.
“I will neither make any deal nor seek any relief,” the cricketer-turned-politician told reporters inside the courtroom after his conviction.
The anti-graft court convened in the Adiala jail where Imran is being held and convicted the couple for graft linked to the Al-Qadir Trust, a welfare foundation they established.
“The prosecution has proven its case. Imran is convicted,” said Judge Nasir Javed Rana, announcing a 14-year sentence for the PTI founder and seven years for Bushra.
In her talk with reporters, Aleema said that the current system needs rectifications as she stressed that the £190 million is in the government’s custody, not Imran’s.
She asserted that the former premier also wanted the judge to announce the verdict as soon as possible as he wanted to challenge it in a superior court. “Once this case lands in the high court, the verdict will be overturned.”
Imran maintains all cases against him are politically motivated and designed to keep him from returning to power.
He had been convicted four times since his arrest, with two convictions overturned and the sentences in the other two cases suspended.
He remained in prison in the Al-Qadir Trust case, the longest-running against him, and other charges related to inciting protests.
Federal Minister for Information Ataullah Tarar, on the other hand, declared that the conviction of former prime minister Imran in the £190 million corruption case was based on merit and is an “open-and-shut case”.
Minister Ata pointed out that Imran had failed to present concrete evidence in court, leading to his conviction. He stressed that despite the defence counsel’s political approach to the case, the court’s decision was firmly grounded in the facts presented. — (Geo News)
