The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has set November 10 as the date for hearing appeals filed by former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi. The appeals challenge their convictions in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case. A division bench made up of Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif will hear them.
The listing marks a new stage in a long-running legal battle involving the former first couple. It follows a step Bushra Bibi took in September, when she approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) asking for an early hearing on her plea to suspend her sentence.
Bushra Bibi’s plea over eyesight and delay
In an application filed through her counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar, Bushra Bibi said her eyesight was getting worse. She argued that the delay in deciding her plea was putting her remaining vision at risk. She is serving a seven-year sentence in the case.
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She told the FCC that her sentence-suspension request had been pending for roughly 19 months. According to her application, it challenged only the delay in considering her request for relief, and did not ask the court to examine the merits of the main appeal. She also argued that as a woman with a serious medical condition and a prisoner, her plea deserved priority. The application pointed to an eye surgery in April 2026 and later medical reports that documented problems in both eyes.
Convictions, dismissed relief requests and the Supreme Court route
Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were convicted in January 2025. An accountability court found that they had given undue favours to property tycoon Malik Riaz in connection with the recovery of his laundered money from the United Kingdom. The couple first asked the IHC to suspend their sentences.
The high court rejected those requests in May 2026, noting that their appeals against conviction had already been fixed for hearing. They then went to the Supreme Court, but the petition was returned as not maintainable. The matter was sent to the FCC under the relevant provisions of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.
Lawyer’s jail visit and the access dispute
Barrister Salman Safdar met Khan and Bushra Bibi at Adiala Jail on November 2, after months of repeated requests to prison authorities. He said he had not seen Imran for seven months and had not seen Bushra for 11 months. The meeting began at 4:30pm and lasted about 40 minutes, covering their health, prison conditions and ongoing legal cases.
Safdar said both clients briefed him on their health and living arrangements inside the jail, and gave him fresh instructions on certain legal matters. He added, however, that the short time was not enough to discuss all the cases and pending legal issues involving the couple.
The meeting followed earlier court proceedings over access to counsel. In June, the IHC directed the Islamabad advocate general to arrange a meeting between the couple and their lawyers within seven days, so that appeals against the £190 million reference could be prepared and pursued. Safdar had told the court that his repeated attempts to meet the clients had failed, leaving him without updated instructions and the signed authorisations needed for the appeals. The court said denying access to lawyers could hinder the administration of justice. In a separate order in September, the IHC told Adiala Jail authorities not to hold either of them in solitary confinement and to facilitate meetings between them in line with prison rules.
