Former Pak PM Imran Khan’s wife says current Pak govt brought disrepute to country, military

Islamabad: Bushra Bibi, the jailed wife of former prime minister Imran Khan, has claimed that Pakistan is now ruled by "fraudsters and thieves" and that the government is responsible for bringing disrepute to the country and its military.

Bushra Bibi, the 49-year-old wife of the 71-year-old founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, has been imprisoned at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since February. Khan has been imprisoned since last year.

The Express Tribune newspaper reported: "Bushra Bibi, the jailed wife of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)'s imprisoned founding leader Imran Khan has said that the government is responsible for bringing disrepute to the country and its military".

"In the afterlife, there are two places: Alim Barzakh, where there are muttaqis (righteous people) and abstainers, while the other is the prison where souls come to Earth, where there is a place where there is a government of devils", Bushra Bibi, said to be a faith healer, said while speaking informally with journalists at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

"She went on to say that the country is ruled by fraudsters and thieves, and labelled every individual within the government as the devil", the newspaper reported.

Khan has accused the current federal government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as illegitimate and accused the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party of stealing its mandate in the February 8 general elections when candidates backed by PTI won the maximum number of seats. However, in a post-election deal, the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party led by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, formed the government, sidelining Khan's PTI.

Bushra, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison on January 31 along with Khan in the Toshakhana (a gift repository) case, was first confined to their Bani Gala residence, declared a sub-jail.

The couple was later acquitted in the case.

However, both of them were later convicted in what is popular as the Iddat case in February, days before the general elections on February 8.

A Pakistani anti-corruption court on Tuesday granted pre-arrest bail to her in a case of alleged corruption.

Khan and Bibi, along with other accused, face charges of causing a loss of about Rs 50 billion to the national exchequer in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, which involves allegedly providing benefits to a property tycoon in return for getting land for a university.

Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich presided over the hearing at Adiala Jail and approved her pre-arrest bail plea.

However, despite the grant of bail, Bushra will remain behind bars due to a conviction in the illegal marriage case.