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Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife have been convicted of a marriage law violation, marking his fourth conviction since he was ousted from power in 2022.
A Pakistani court sentenced the former premier and his wife to seven years in prison on Saturday, claiming their marriage in 2018 violated the country’s laws.
The verdict follows a separate case in which Mr Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to 14 years in prison on Wednesday for corruption.
It comes ahead of Pakistan’s parliamentary elections on 8 February in which Mr Khan has already been disqualified because of his recent convictions. The former premier and his family have insisted the cases are politically motivated.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which was founded by Mr Khan in 1996 after he retired from cricket, condemned the latest court ruling as a sham trial upholding political suppression.
Gohar Khan, the head of the party, said: “This is a bogus case against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi, but still they were given maximum prison sentence by the court.”
The prosecution claimed Mr Khan and his wife violated the Islamic law which is upheld by Pakistan that a woman must wait three months before marrying again. The couple were also fined 500,000 rupees (£1,429) each.
It comes days after the pair were sentenced to 14 years in prison over corruption charges and a further 10 years in prison for allegedly leaking state secrets. The court also disqualified Mr Khan from holding any public office for 10 years.
Mr Khan and Ms Bibi were variously accused of retaining and selling state gifts while in office, and sharing the contents of a secret dossier sent by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington by waving it at a rally.
They mark just some of the 150 charges levelled against Mr Khan, ranging from contempt of court to terrorism and inciting violence.
The former cricketer, who was captain of the Pakistan team throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, served as prime minister from 2018 until he was ousted from power in a no confidence vote in April 2022.
The country has seen a wave of violent demonstrations since Mr Khan’s arrest in May last year, with authorities continuing to crack down on his supporters.
The latest convictions come days before Pakistan heads to the polls. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is the frontrunner in the election, but current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s premiership has been marred by hyperinflation and protests over Mr Khan’s arrest.
Nawaz Sharif, the country’s former prime minister and Shebaz’s older brother, returned to the country in October after four years of self-imposed exile in the UK. Within weeks, corruption charges against him were dropped in the courts, leading to suggestions that he has been handpicked by the powerful military as the nation’s next leader.
The brothers’ biggest challenge is understood to be subduing support for Mr Khan, who has a large following among Pakistan’s urban youth. A Gallup poll published in January found that Mr Khan remains the most popular politician in the country.