Pakistan High Court accepts request seeking transfer of Imran Khan & his wife's illegal marriage case

A top Pakistani court on Monday accepted the request of a judge hearing jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi's illegal marriage case to transfer it to another court, days after the complainant expressed a lack of confidence in the judge. Khan, 71, and Bushra, 49, were sentenced to seven years in prison each on February 3 by a trial court for contracting the marriage during iddat, a mandatory period for a woman in Islam to wait before a second marriage after the death of her husband or divorce.

The case was filed by Bushra's ex-husband, Khawar Maneka, against the couple in November 2023, alleging that they married without Bushra observing the mandatory waiting period of iddat. He asked the court to declare the marriage null and void.

The former first couple had challenged the verdict in Islamabad District and Sessions Court, where Judge Shahrukh Arjumand heard the appeals and reserved the verdict on May 23.

The Islamabad High Court on Monday accepted Arjumand's request to transfer the former first couple's illegal marriage case to the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majuka, Geo News reported.

Last week, instead of announcing the verdict in the case, Judge Arjumand said the case should be transferred due to an objection by the complainant, who had asked the judge to recuse himself.

The judge wrote to the Islamabad High Court seeking the case's transfer after Maneka expressed a lack of confidence in the judge, the report said.

He noted that a previous application of no confidence had already been dismissed, and this was the second time Maneka had shown no trust in him. Therefore, he requested that the matter be transferred to another court, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The judge also mentioned in the letter that Maneka and his lawyer had previously attempted to stall the hearings. He suggested that a time frame for completing the case should be set, according to the report.

The couple had married in 2018, the year Khan went on to win elections and become prime minister. Bushra was ostensibly his spiritual guide, but the two developed affection for each other during their meetings. She got a divorce from her husband of 28 years, with whom she had five children.

She is the third wife of Khan, a former cricketing hero who during his heydays of sporting career, had a playboy reputation.