Al-Qadir Trust case: Lawyers move FCC seeking early fixation of Bushra’s plea

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawyers on Tuesday approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) seeking early fixation of Bushra Bibi’s appeal in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case.

PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja and Barrister Salman Safdar filed an application for early hearing of the appeal filed by former premier Imran Khan’s wife. They requested the FCC to fix the criminal appeal before an appropriate bench.

According to sources, the FCC Registrar Office has assured the PTI counsels of fixation of the appeal next week.

Bushra, along with Imran, had initially moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the suspension of her sentence in July last year. But their request was dismissed by the IHC in May 2026, observing that their appeals against their convictions had already been fixed for hearing.

Barrister Salman therefore filed an application before the FCC on September 17, 26, citing a rapidly deteriorating ocular condition that threatened the appellant’s remaining eyesight.

The application said Bushra’s role, as attributed by the prosecution, was confined to aiding and abetting and did not involve any primary or substantive act constituting the gravamen of the offence. It said the applicant was 54 years old and had been convicted under Section 9(a)(xii) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, for aiding and abetting.

The application also argued that Bushra was a woman and that it was a settled practice, consistent with the spirit of the first proviso to Section 497(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, that female litigants, particularly those in custody, be heard on a priority basis.

It regretted that she had already suffered “grave and irreversible prejudice” because of prolonged proceedings before the IHC, where, during the pendency of her application for suspension of sentence, she developed a serious ocular condition and underwent surgery on one eye on April 16, 2026.

“She continues to face a real risk to her remaining eye,” the application said, citing further medical examinations and the details contained in a synopsis report submitted by the superintendent of Central Jail Adiala before the Supreme Court.

The former first lady was sentenced to seven years in jail in the Al-Qadir Trust case. She is currently imprisoned at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail. The court found Imran and Bushra guilty of giving undue favours to property tycoon Malik Riaz in retrieving his laundered money from the United Kingdom.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026