An accountability court hearing the £190 million case involving Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi postponed the announcement of the reserved verdict on Monday.
Judge Nasir Javed Rana will soon announce a new date for the verdict, which was originally reserved on December 18. The court had previously set December 23 as the date for the verdict.
The case, also known as the Al-Qadir Trust case, accuses Khan, Bushra, and others of causing a loss of £190 million to the national exchequer through a settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon. Over the course of the year-long trial, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) recorded testimonies from 35 witnesses, including former principal secretary Azam Khan, ex-chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak, and former federal minister Zubaida Jalal.
The charges stem from allegations that Khan and other accused figures arranged for £190 million, sent by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to Pakistan, to be adjusted as part of the settlement with the property tycoon. In December 2019, Khan approved this agreement with the NCA without disclosing its details to the public. The funds were meant to be submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon.
NAB officials claim that Khan and Bushra received land worth billions of rupees from the tycoon to establish an educational institute, in return for providing legal cover for the tycoon’s black money from the UK crime agency. Shortly after the agreement was made, the Al-Qadir Trust was set up in Islamabad.
This case is one of many legal challenges facing Imran Khan, who has been imprisoned since August 2023 following his conviction in the Toshakhana case.
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