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Islamabad: A Pakistan court on Saturday ruled former prime minister Imran Khan's marriage to his third wife illegal under Islamic law and sentenced the pair to seven years each in jail, his party said.
It is the third verdict in a week to attack the former international cricket star's reputation, after he was given concurrent prison sentences of 10 years for leaking state secrets and 14 years for graft alongside his wife Bushra Bibi.
Khan, who was booted from office by a vote of no confidence in April 2022, insists nearly 200 offences he has since been charged with have been fabricated by the military-led establishment to stop him from contesting elections on February 8.
The latest conviction centres on an Islamic law known as "iddat", which dictates that a widowed or divorced woman must wait three months before remarrying, to leave no doubt about who the father is in the instance of a pregnancy.
"A court has declared the marriage of former prime minister Imran Khan & Busra Bibi illegal with 7 years imprisonment each," his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said in a statement.
"This shameful case is illogical. All of this is happening for political goals," said Khan's lawyer Gohar Ali Khan, adding that the conviction and jail terms would be challenged in court.
Khan has been imprisoned in Rawalpindi for months, while Bibi surrendered this week and is being held at her home, declared a "sub-jail", on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad.
"The charges of corruption and now these ones are an attempt to raise moral questions on his character," lawyer Sabahat Rizvi, who was not involved in the case, told AFP Saturday.
"They are targeting him because they could not diminish his aura."
