Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to 14 years in prison, which is the second sentence given to the former prime minister of Pakistan in two days.
The two sentences were said a week before the South Asian country’s election, where he cannot run for office.
Khan was removed as Prime Minister in 2022 and is now in jail for three years for being corrupt.
He believes that the many lawsuits against him are because of politics.
On Wednesday, he was in court for getting presents from the state while he was in charge, and his wife got them too. On Tuesday, he was in court for sharing secret government papers and got 10 years in prison. It is believed that the two sentences will happen at the same time, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The court told the couple to pay a 1. 5 billion rupee fine (which is about 4. 2 million pounds or 5. 3 million dollars)
Khan’s PTI party said that their leader is banned from doing political work for 10 years. He also can’t hold a public office.
Khan’s lawyers said they will ask Pakistan’s High Court to review both cases.
The ex-prime minister and cricket player has been in jail since August when he was arrested. He has been in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi for most of the time.
His wife Bushra Bibi, who had been released from custody, turned herself in at the jail on Wednesday. She usually stayed out of the public eye while they were in office. They got married in 2018, a few months before Khan became prime minister.
Both of them said they didn’t do what Pakistan’s anti-corruption group said they did. They denied selling or keeping state gifts for their own gain. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia gave a jewellery set as a gift.
The PTI says the cases against Khan are fake. They think the trials happened in unfair courts where things happened too quickly. The case on Wednesday was called a “sad day in our judicial system history” and the judiciary is being “dismantled”.
“You cannot ask any more questions, no final arguments can be made, and the decision seems to have already been made,” it claimed.
Khan’s lawyers also said he didn’t have a chance to defend himself in a trial that went faster than they thought it would. The judge said the decisions when Khan, Bibi, and their lawyers were not in the room, according to reporters.
At the same time, Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, said to the media outside Adiala jail that they were not sure what time the case was supposed to begin.
Khan has not said anything about the decision on Wednesday. The decision came after a judge found him guilty of sharing a secret document and hurting relationships between countries. Khan told his supporters to vote on February 8 and seek revenge for any wrongs in a peaceful way. He said this in a message on his social media account.
Even before the sentences were given, people were already doubting if the election next Thursday can be trusted because Khan and his party have been ignored a lot.
The government says they didn’t crackdown on PTI, but many of its leaders are in jail or have left the party. The people running for election are not part of any political party and a lot of them are actively campaigning.
Many of the party’s followers were arrested after protests, some of which turned violent, when Khan was taken into police custody last May.
The party no longer has the cricket bat symbol, which is important for voters who can’t read well to know where to mark their vote.
The person expected to win is Nawaz Sharif, who used to be the prime minister three times before. He came back from living outside his country in the fall. He caused a lot of trouble for the military during his long career and was put in jail for doing bad things before the 2018 election that Imran Khan won.
Many people think that the Pakistan military likes someone else more now, instead of Khan, who they used to like.
Tag: Pakistani
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Former Pakistani PM Bushra Bibi and his wife imprisoned due to corruption
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Indian naval forces save Pakistani seamen from pirate attacks
The Indian navy saved 19 Pakistani sailors after their boat was taken by pirates near Somalia.
The Indian warship INS Sumitra saved people for the second time in 36 hours.
Some time ago, the ship saved 17 Iranian sailors from another boat that was taken over by pirates, according to the navy.
The Indian navy has helped many ships and sailors in trouble recently.
Recent attacks on ships near the coast of Somalia have made people worry that there might be more pirates in the area.
The INS Sumitra is now on a mission to protect the waters near Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden.
The navy said their ship helped a boat in trouble on January 28th and stopped an Iranian boat. Naval officers made the pirates let the crew and the boat go safely.
After the 17 crew members were set free, the ship was cleaned and allowed to keep sailing. The statement didn’t say if the pirates are okay or not.
On Tuesday, the navy said they used INS Sumitra to find and stop another fishing boat called Al Naeemi that had an Iranian flag.
The navy people got on the ship to clean it and make sure the crew was okay.
The pirates’ situation wasn’t talked about more, but a picture on X showed Navy people with guns watching over men who had their hands tied.
On Saturday, the Seychelles military saved six Sri Lankan fishermen after their boat was taken over by some other people.
According to a news report by Bloomberg, the rise in piracy near Somalia’s coast is connected to the problems in keeping the seas safe from attacks by the Houthis, a rebel group supported by Iran, in the Red Sea.
On 26 January, the Indian Navy sent its warship INS Visakhapatnam to help a burning tanker in the Gulf of Aden after it was hit by a missile. Ships from France and the United States also helped the boat.
In January, Indian navy commandos saved 21 crew members from a ship attacked by pirates near Somalia. -
Pakistan: Mob burns churches over blasphemy accusations
In response to allegations that two men desecrated the Quran, authorities allege that thousands of Muslims in a Pakistani city have burned down at least four churches and vandalised the homes of Christians.
Residents of Jaranwala, in eastern Punjab, claimed that up to a dozen structures belonging to churches were also harmed.
More than 100 protesters have been detained by police, who have also opened an investigation into the violence.
Authorities claim that things are still tight in Jaranwala.
According to Reuters, police have also denounced two local Christians for violating the death-sentence-carrying blasphemy statute.
Although no one has been punished in accordance with the law, hundreds have in the past been murdered by mobs after being falsely accused of blasphemy.
A man from Sri Lanka was slain and his body was burnt on fire two years ago after he was accused of blasphemy. Six persons were killed and over 60 homes were destroyed by a mob in Punjab’s Gorja area in 2009 after they were accused of disrespecting Islam.
During their colonial rule, the British enacted a blasphemy-punishing statute in the nineteenth century. But in the 1980s, law enforcement imposed harsher penalties for infractions, including the death penalty for anybody who insults Islam.
The majority of people in Pakistan are Muslims—about 96%. Other nations, such as Iran, Brunei, and Mauritania, also execute people for defaming a religion.
According to a local official who spoke to BBC Urdu, as stories of the two men reportedly desecrating the Quran, the holy book of Islam, spread on social media early on Wednesday morning, authorities received complaints concerning protests and fires.
According to the authorities, blasphemous writing was purportedly found on torn pages of the holy book that were discovered close to a Christian settlement.
The reports went viral on social media and in the city, upsetting the Muslim population. Mobs attacked and pillaged Christian homeowners’ homes during the ensuing bloodshed.
Christian Yassir Bhatti, age 31, was one of many who had to leave their houses.
He told the AFP news agency, “They broke the windows and doors and took out refrigerators, sofas, chairs, and other household objects to pile them up in front of the Church to be burned.
“They were ruthless; they burned and desecrated Bibles as well.”
Social media videos show demonstrators demolishing Christian structures as it appears that cops are looking on.
The alleged blasphemy was denounced by Punjab province’s communications minister, Amir Mir, who also said that thousands of police officers had been dispatched to the scene and that dozens of people had been detained.
According to a government source who spoke to Reuters, the majority of the mob was made up of members of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) political party. The TLP has refuted all accusations.
Anwar ul-Haq Kakar, the acting prime minister, urged immediate action against the perpetrators of the violence.
The adjoining city of Lahore’s bishop, a Pakistani named Azad Marshall, expressed that the Christian community was “deeply pained and distressed” by the happenings.
X, formerly known as Twitter, is where he issued the statement. “We cry out for justice and action from law enforcement and those who dispense justice, and the safety of all citizens to intervene immediately and assure us that our lives are valuable in our own homeland,” he wrote.
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Pakistani journalist shot dead in Kenya
Renowned Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif has been shot dead in Kajiado county, which neighbours the capital Nairobi.
Police in Kenya have confirmed that he passed away on Sunday.
Local media say he was shot at a roadblock on the Nairobi-Magadi highway in a case of mistaken identity.
Police spokesperson Bruno Shioso says they are investigating the circumstances behind Mr Sharif’s death.
Mr Sharif’s wife Javeria Siddique tweeted on Monday that she had ” lost [a] friend, husband and my favourite journalist”.
I lost friend, husband and my favourite journalist @arsched today, as per police he was shot in Kenya.
Respect our privacy and in the name of breaking pls don’t share our family pics, personal details and his last pictures from hospital.
Remember us in ur prayers. pic.twitter.com/wP1BJxqP5e— Javeria Siddique (@javerias) October 24, 2022
Pakistan President Arif Alvi said “Arshad Sharif’s death Is a great loss to journalism and Pakistan. May his soul rest in peace and may his family, which includes his followers, have the strength to bear this loss”.