RAWALPINDI: The long-awaited verdict in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi has been delayed for the third time.
Accountability court Judge Nasir Javed postponed the pronouncement of the verdict till January 17 (Friday). The verdict had already been delayed twice — on Dec 23, 2024, and Jan 6, 2025.
The judge expressed anger over the absence of the accused. “I have been sitting in the courtroom for two hours, but none of them from defence have appeared today,” the judge said.
The judge was expected to deliver the verdict in a makeshift courtroom at Adiala Jail.
However, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan told reporters that we were waiting for the verdict in the case today. “The verdict was already delayed before we entered the jail facility,” Gohar said.
ABN News reporter Anwar Abbasi confirmed that Imran Khan’s wife and co-accused, Bushra Bibi, was denied entry into the Adiala and she left from outside.
Barrister Gohar asserted that the postponement was attempted to “give the impression that a deal is being made. There is no deal being made.”
“It is clearly an unjust attitude toward PTI,” Gohar told reporters.
The PTI chairman reiterated that this case was made to pressurise Imran Khan.
Ahead of the hearing today, Imran’s sisters Aleema, Noreen, Uzma Khan, and PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja reached Adiala Jail to attend the hearing.
Former prime minister Imran Khan had also previously claimed that the verdict was being delayed again and again to “pressurise him”.
The £190 million case was filed by NAB in December 2023, involving former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, and others. The case was registered over the alleged settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon, which cost £190 million to the national exchequer.
The said case is part of the plethora of legal challenges faced by the incarcerated PTI founder who has been behind bars since August last year after he was sentenced in Toshakhana case-I.
