Al-Qadir Trust case: Imran, Bushra challenge SC registrar’s refusal to entertain their petitions

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse, Bushra Bibi, challenged in the Supreme Court on Monday the registrar’s decision to return a set of petitions that contested the high court’s refusal to suspend their sentences in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case . Imran and Bushra Bibi were convicted and sentenced in January 2025 in the corruption case, in which an accountability court found them guilty of obtaining billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from a real estate firm for legalising Rs50bn that was identified and returned to the country by the UK during the previous PTI government. The court verdict had said that funds from foreign bank accounts, previously frozen by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), were repatriated to settle the liabilities of Bahria Town instead of being added to the national kitty. The court had found that Imran, when he was the prime minister, gave a nod to a confidential deed for the illegal transfer of funds to settle Bahria Town’s liability. Imran was handed a 14-year sentence in the case, and Bushra was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. The couple had challenged their convictions in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) soon after they were sentenced. They had also filed pleas seeking suspension of their sentences, which were taken up in May 2025. After the couple sought urgent fixation of their suspension pleas in April, the IHC rejected those in May, declaring them infructuous as the main appeals against the convictions were already fixed for hearing. Last week, the IHC granted a final adjournment to Imran’s counsel Sardar Latif Khosa, warning no further delay would be tolerated. On Monday, Imran and Bushra challenged the June 29 decision of the SC registrar’s office to return their pleas against the IHC’s April 30...