Pakistan's Imran Khan and wife acquitted in unlawful marriage case: summary

What we know

• A court in Pakistan has acquitted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife of charges related to unlawful marriage, according to statements from his party and lawyer.
• Khan and his wife, Bushra Khan (also known as Bushra Bibi), were sentenced to seven years in prison just days before Pakistan's February election. The court ruled that their 2018 marriage violated Islamic law.
• In June, a court denied their request to suspend the February ruling. However, on Saturday, July 13, an Islamabad court announced that the appeals of both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi had been accepted.
• Zulfi Bukhari, a senior official in Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, informed Al Jazeera that the charges had been 'dismissed.' Meanwhile, Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, posted on X that the couple 'are acquitted.'
• Khan remains in custody after a court revoked his bail this week, citing accusations that he incited riots by his supporters in May 2023. Lawyer Intazar Hussain Panjutha informed Al Jazeera that Khan 'will not be released despite the acquittal.'
• An anti-terrorism court in Lahore approved Khan’s arrest this week in connection with last year’s riots, according to his party’s legal team. The court denied him bail on Tuesday, July 9, as the investigation into his alleged involvement in the unrest continues, even though he was already in custody.
• The marriage case was initiated last year by Bibi’s former husband, Khawar Maneka, who claimed that his ex-wife did not observe the mandatory three-month waiting period required under Islamic law before marrying Khan. Maneka asserts that he divorced Bibi in November 2017. Khan announced his third marriage, to Bibi, in February 2018, just months before becoming prime minister.

What they said

"Imran Khan and Bibi Sahiba are acquitted," Khan's lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, posted on X. Earlier this month, a United Nations panel of experts deemed Khan’s detention arbitrary and stated it “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office. Thus, from the outset, that prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose.”