A Pakistan court on Thursday indicted former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on fresh charges of a graft case, for illegally selling state gifts, Geo TV reported.
The indictment was the latest in dozens of cases against the 72-year-old former cricket star, who has been in jail since late last year.
Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have already been granted bail in this graft case, which is one of a series of state treasury charges known as “Toshakhana”.
These charges revolve around allegations that Khan and his wife illegally procured and then sold gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession, which he received during his 2018-22 premiership. They have denied committing an offence.
Khan and Bibi were both handed a 14-year sentence on those charges days before a national election earlier this year. This followed a three-year sentence handed to him in late 2023 in another version of the same case.
However, their sentences have been suspended in appeals at the high court.
The gifts included diamond jewellery and seven watches, six of them Rolexes – the most expensive being valued at 85 million rupees ($305,000).
As per Pakistanis laws, accepting gifts from foreign dignitaries is not allowed while the government officials and politicians are in office, and they must pay their market value and declare how much they earned from their sales.
Earlier this month, Khan was also indicted on charges of inciting attacks against the military, a case stemming from deadly anti-government rallies led by his party last year.
Bibi also led a deadly protest march by thousands of supporters in the capital Islamabad on Nov. 25, escalating a face-off with the government and its military backers.
Khan has been fighting court cases since he was ousted from power in 2022. He and his party say the cases were made up to keep him out of politics at the behest of the military after he had fallen out with the army’s generals. The army denies the accusation.
(With inputs from Reuters)
