Federal Constitutional Court dismisses Bushra Bibi’s sentence suspension appeal in £190 million case, says main appeal should be decided early

ISLAMABAD: There was no relief for Bushra Bibi on Wednesday. The Federal Constitutional Court threw out her appeal seeking suspension of her sentence in the £190 million case, reasoning that when the main appeal is already waiting to be heard, deciding that appeal early is a better course than running a separate suspension proceeding alongside it.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, with Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, announced the decision. The written order runs to three pages and was authored by the chief justice. Bushra Bibi, the wife of jailed PTI founder Imran Khan, had challenged the Islamabad High Court’s April 30 order, which had refused to suspend her sentence.

A late appeal, forgiven

The appeal itself reached the court 61 days late. The judges accepted her explanation — that she is incarcerated at Adiala Jail — and condoned the delay. On the substance, though, they were unmoved. A bulky record and the need for detailed arguments in the main appeal, the court held, do not on their own justify interfering with the high court’s refusal.

The order also recorded an expectation: that the Islamabad High Court will give both sides a fair hearing on the main appeal and will discourage unnecessary adjournments. Barrister Salman Safdar, appearing for Bushra Bibi, had argued the opposite problem — that the National Accountability Bureau had spent the past 13 months repeatedly seeking adjournments, and that courts have traditionally treated women leniently in such matters, giving her plea a sound legal footing. Salman Akram Raja was also present in the courtroom.

How the case reached this point

In January 2025, an Islamabad accountability court sentenced Bushra Bibi to seven years in prison with a Rs500,000 fine in this case, while Imran Khan received 14 years and a Rs1 million fine. The case, widely known as the Al-Qadir Trust case, centres on £190 million sent to Pakistan by Britain’s National Crime Agency that, prosecutors say, was adjusted in a confidential settlement approved by the then prime minister in December 2019 without its details being disclosed. Both husband and wife are held at Adiala Jail, and after Wednesday’s ruling their hopes rest squarely on the main appeal pending in the Islamabad High Court.