Pakistan: Court upholds Imran Khan, wife's 7-year jail term in unlawful marriage case

A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Thursday declined the pleas of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to suspend their seven-year sentences in the Iddat case, reported.

The verdict, which had been reserved on Tuesday, was announced by Additional District and sessions judge (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka on Thursday.

Lawyers, women activists, and members of civil society condemned the Iddat conviction, calling it a "blow to women's right to dignity and privacy".

The ruling had been met with protests in Islamabad and criticism in Karachi.

Prior to the general elections, on February 3, an Islamabad court sentenced the couple to seven years in prison and fined them each 500,000 Pakistani rupees for getting married during Bushra Bibi's Iddat period — a specified period of time that must elapse before a Muslim widow or divorcee may remarry.

The couple was also given 14 years in prison in the Toshakhana case, while Khan and his foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, were given 10 years in prison in the cipher case, the same week the verdict was rendered.

Khan and Qureshi wereearlier this month, and the penalties in the Toshakhana case were suspended in April.