An Islamabad accountability court had indicted Imran and Bushra in the reference earlier this month. The anti-graft watchdog alleged in the reference that during his term as prime minister, Imran and his wife had received a total of 108 gifts from different heads of state and foreign dignitaries
According to the verdict delivered today, Imran and Bushra were barred from holding any public office for 10 years and slapped with a fine of Rs787 million each. While the PTI founder was presented during the hearing, his wife did not appear before the court.
The judge had already closed the right of cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses and asked Imran and his spouse to record their statements under Section 342 (power to examine the accused) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Shahbaz Khosa, PTI lawyer Latif Khosa’s son, had been representing Imran and Bushra in the case. However, when the stage of cross-examining the witnesses arrived, lawyer Zaheer Abbas Chaudhry appeared before the court and submitted a Power of Attorney from Imran.
He sought more time to prepare for the case, at which the prosecution pointed out that Chaudhry was the ninth counsel from the defence side and termed it a part of delaying tactics.
