Bushra Bibi, the wife of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, was released from Adiala Jail on Thursday after spending nine months in detention.
According to the AFP, her release comes following the suspension of her graft sentence and the collapse of an illegal marriage case on appeal, according to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Bibi was originally convicted alongside Khan in the days leading up to the February 2024 elections, in what the opposition leader described as an attempt to exclude him from the political process.
However, her illegal marriage conviction was overturned, and her sentence for graft was put on hold, enabling her release. A separate case saw her granted bail on Wednesday.
“She was kept in jail to put pressure on Imran Khan,” Gohar Ali Khan, chairman of the PTI party, said in a statement. “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all PTI supporters on the release of Bushra Bibi, and we offer our gratitude to God.”
Bibi is now traveling to her residence in Islamabad following her release.
Imran Khan, who remains imprisoned, was sentenced to 14 years in jail in January 2024 on corruption charges, a day after he received a separate 10-year sentence related to the leaking of state secrets.
These rulings were handed down just a week before national elections. Khan and his wife were both found guilty in a graft case involving gifts he received while serving as prime minister.
The couple married in 2018, shortly before Khan became prime minister. Since his ousting, Khan has maintained that the charges against him and his wife are politically motivated.
In a related development, Pakistan’s high court in June 2024 overturned Khan’s treason conviction, one of several charges brought against him in the lead-up to the elections. While the treason case has been dismissed, Khan remains in prison on other charges.
“This is the first big case that was part of the political victimization against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, which has been dashed to the ground,” said Khan’s lawyer Salman Safdar, speaking outside the Islamabad High Court.
