Imran Khan, wife sentenced to 17 years in Toshakhana corruption case

A Pakistani accountability court on Saturday delivered a crushing verdict against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi, sentencing them to 17 years of imprisonment each in the high-profile Toshakhana 2 corruption case.

The ruling, announced by special court judge Shahrukh Arjumand inside Rawalpindi’s high-security Adiala Jail, centres on allegations of fraud involving state gifts received by the former first couple from the Saudi government in 2021.

Under the judgment, Khan and Bushra were handed 10 years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 409 of the Pakistan Penal Code for criminal breach of trust, along with an additional seven years under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court also imposed a fine of PKR 16.4 million on each of them.

The case, filed in July 2024, accuses the former prime minister and his wife of unlawfully selling valuable gifts — including luxury watches and diamond and gold jewellery sets — without depositing them in the Toshakhana, the official state repository for gifts received by public officeholders.

Although both Khan and Bushra had secured bail in the case — Bushra in October 2024 and Khan a month later — they were formally indicted in December. The trial continued within the confines of Adiala Jail, where the couple has already been incarcerated following their conviction earlier this year in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

The latest sentence adds to the mounting legal troubles of the former premier, once Pakistan’s most powerful political figure, and his wife. Both convicts retain the right to challenge the verdict and sentences before the High Court, setting the stage for yet another legal battle in a saga that continues to reshape Pakistan’s political landscape.

With PTI inputs