An accountability court in Pakistan has decided to postpone the formal charging of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi in a corruption case involving Rs 50 million until February 27, as reported by the media on Saturday.
The court's decision to defer the indictment of Khan and Bushra in the Al-Qadir Trust case, initiated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), stems from the Islamabad High Court's scheduled consideration of appeals against their convictions in the Toshakhana and Cipher cases on February 26, according to a report in the Dawn newspaper.
Judge Nasir Javed Rana presided over the proceedings at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, where 71-year-old Khan, the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, is currently detained.
Meanwhile, Bushra Bibi, aged 49, remains confined at Khan's residence in Bani Gala, Islamabad, following their sentencing to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana corruption case.
The Al-Qadir Trust case revolves around the handling of £190 million (approximately Rs 50 billion), repatriated to Pakistan by the UK’s National Crime Agency from Pakistani property magnate Malik Riaz Hussain.
During Khan's tenure as prime minister, rather than depositing the recovered funds into the national treasury, he purportedly permitted the tycoon to utilize the amount to partially settle a hefty fine of around Rs 450 billion imposed by the Supreme Court some years prior.
In exchange for this arrangement, the tycoon allegedly bestowed approximately 57 acres of land upon a trust established by Khan and Bushra Bibi with the intention of establishing Al-Qadir University in the Sohawa region of Punjab's Jhelum district.
While Hussain, along with his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza Shehzad Akbar, and Zulfi BukÂhari, are also implicated in the case, they have evaded participation in the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings, leading to their declaration as proclaimed offenders.
