ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has fixed for November 10 the appeals filed by former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, against their convictions in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif will hear the appeals, marking a fresh development in the long-running legal proceedings against the former first couple.
The hearing comes after Bushra Bibi approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) in September, seeking an early hearing of her appeal for suspension of her sentence. In an application filed through her counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar, she had cited her deteriorating eyesight and argued that delays in deciding the plea were putting her remaining vision at risk.
Bushra, who is serving a seven-year sentence in the case, told the FCC that her sentence-suspension plea had remained undecided for approximately 19 months. She maintained that the application concerned only the delay in hearing her request for relief and did not require the court to examine the merits of the main appeal.
She also argued that, as a woman with a serious medical condition and a prisoner, her plea warranted priority consideration. The application referred to her eye surgery in April 2026 and subsequent medical reports documenting problems with both eyes.
Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were convicted in January 2025 after an accountability court found them guilty of giving undue favours to property tycoon Malik Riaz in connection with the recovery of his laundered money from the United Kingdom.
The couple had initially approached the IHC seeking suspension of their sentences. The high court dismissed their requests in May 2026, observing that their appeals against conviction had already been fixed for hearing. They subsequently approached the Supreme Court, but the petition was returned as not maintainable, with the matter directed to the FCC under the relevant provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.
Meeting with counsel
Barrister Salman Safdar met Khan and Bushra Bibi, at Adiala Jail on November 2 following months of repeated requests to prison authorities. The lawyer said he had met Imran after seven months and Bushra after 11 months. The meeting, held at 4:30pm, lasted around 40 minutes and focused on their health, prison conditions and ongoing legal cases. Safdar said both briefed him on their health and living arrangements inside the jail and gave fresh instructions on certain legal matters. However, he said the limited time was insufficient to discuss all the cases and pending legal issues involving the couple.
The meeting followed earlier court proceedings over the couple’s access to legal counsel. In June, the IHC directed the Islamabad advocate general to arrange a meeting between Imran and Bushra and their lawyers within seven days to facilitate the preparation and prosecution of appeals against their convictions in the £190 million reference. During the hearing, Safdar had told the court that repeated attempts to meet his clients had been unsuccessful, leaving him without updated instructions and the signed authorisations required to pursue their appeals. The court expressed concern that denying access to legal counsel could impede the administration of justice.
In a separate development in September, the IHC directed Adiala Jail authorities not to keep either Imran or Bushra in solitary confinement and ordered that meetings between them be facilitated in accordance with prison rules.
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