Accountability Court issues arrest warrants for Bushra in £190m case

ISLAMABAD. Special Accountability Court Islamabad Judge Nasir Javed Rana issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Bushra Bibi, wife of former prime minister Imran Khan in connection with £190 million corruption case.

The court directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to arrest Bushra Bibi and present her in court by Nov 26. The court also issued a show-cause notice to the guarantor of Bushra’s bail.

During the hearing on Friday, Bushra Bibi’s lawyer again requested an exemption from attending the hearing on medical grounds, citing a report from Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital. However, NAB raised objections, stating that the notarised medical documents were issued in Islamabad, not in Peshawar. It marked the eighth consecutive hearing that Bushra Bibi missed in the ongoing case. Imran Khan appeared in court but neither Khan nor Bushra submitted their statement under Section 342-CrPC, 1898.

Meanwhile, a special court issued the release order for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder chairman Imran Khan in the Toshakhana 2.0 case. The order stated that Imran Khan’s bail had been approved by the Islamabad High Court, and since he is not wanted in any other case, he should be released. The surety money of Rs1 million each was submitted by Tariq Noon and Raja Ghulam Sajjad.

In a related development, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the cancellation of the post-arrest bail of Bushra Bibi in the Toshakhana-II case. The petition said that Bushra Bibi was not cooperating with the trial and had been absent during several hearings in the relevant court. The FIA prayed to the court to cancel the bail d for smooth proceedings of the trial process.

In another development, a 5-member bench headed by Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has sought further arguments from the lawyer of the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP) regarding the jurisdiction of the court on the petitions against the disqualification of PTI founder Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case and his removal from the party chairmanship.

During the hearing, the ECP lawyer raised an objection to the jurisdiction of the court, stating that this case had already been scheduled for hearing in the Islamabad High Court. The Lahore High Court does not have the authority to hear this case.

Justice Shahid Karim remarked that the arguments relate to an important case and should have been organized. Justice Mirza asked the lawyer of the PTI founder to provide copies of all the court decisions to the judges.

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