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Pakistan court acquits former PM Imran Khan, wife in unlawful marriage case
A court in Pakistan has acquitted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife on charges of unlawful marriage, according to his party and lawyer.
Khan and his wife Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to seven years in prison, days before Pakistan’s election in February, a court ruling at the time that their marriage in 2018 violated Islamic law.
In June a court rejected their plea to have the February ruling suspended.
But on Saturday, an Islamabad court said the “appeals of both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are accepted”.
Zulfi Bukhari, a senior official in Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party told Al Jazeera that the charges had been “dismissed”, while Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, posted on X, that the couple “are acquitted”.
Khan remains behind bars as a court this week cancelled his bail over accusations he incited riots by his supporters in May 2023.
Lawyer Intazar Hussain Panjutha told Al Jazeera that Khan “will not be released despite acquittal today [Saturday]”.
An anti-terrorism court in Lahore this week approved Khan’s arrest in a case related to last year’s riots, his party’s legal team said.
The court refused to grant him bail on Tuesday as the investigation into his alleged role in the unrest continues, despite the fact he was behind bars at the time.
Bukhari told Al Jazeera that “at this moment, there is not one case on which Khan can be kept in jail any more”.
The marriage case was filed last year by Bibi’s former husband, Khawar Maneka, who alleged that his divorced wife did not observe the necessary three-month break required under Islamic law before marrying Khan. Maneka claims he divorced his wife in November 2017. Khan announced his third marriage, to Bibi, in February 2018, months before he became the prime minister.
And as for Bibi, Bukhari said “this unlawful marriage case was the only one keeping her behind bars and with this acquittal, she should be immediately released today, not tomorrow”.
Earlier this month a United Nations panel of experts found Khan’s detention arbitrary and said it “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.
“Thus, from the outset, that prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose,” it said, calling for his immediate release after nearly a year in jail.
Candidates loyal to Khan won the most seats in the general election, but were kept from government by an alliance of military-backed rival parties.
The PTI secured a major legal victory on Friday when the Supreme Court declared it eligible for a share of reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies, a significant setback to the coalition government.
Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was removed by a no-confidence vote after falling out with the military establishment, which wields huge influence over civilian politics.
In opposition, he waged a campaign of defiance against the top generals, even accusing them of an assassination attempt that wounded him.
But the former cricket star’s comeback campaign was hobbled by scores of legal cases, which analysts say were likely brought at the behest of the military establishment.
Khan was first briefly arrested in May 2023, sparking nationwide unrest from PTI supporters, some of which targeted military facilities.
The government and military cited the attacks as justification for a sweeping crackdown on the PTI, which saw its senior leadership decimated by arrests and defections.
PTI candidates were forced to stand as independents in the February 8 elections, which had been repeatedly delayed amid political chaos.
Khan’s arrest and conviction for corruption back in August 2023 – on charges that he denies – meant he was barred from standing for office himself, confined to a cell in Adiala Jail south of the capital, Islamabad.
Despite that, candidates loyal to PTI secured more seats than any other party. They were blocked from power by a broad coalition of parties considered more pliable to the influence of the military.
[Aljazeera]
The BCB has said that they will rely on the Bangladesh government’s directive before finalising their tour to Pakistan later this month. Bangladesh were originally scheduled to play five T20Is there from May 25 to June 3, but the PSLs schedule was revised following cross-border tensions between Pakistan and India.
According to the revised fixtures, the PSL final will now be held on May 25, when Pakistan and Bangladesh were originally scheduled to play the first T20I.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the PCB has sent a new schedule for the T20Is between Pakistan and Bangladesh, with the first match now slotted for May 27, and the last on June 5.
BCB’s media committee chairman Iftekhar Rahman said they will rely on information from government security agencies and the Bangladesh high commission in Islamabad to take the final decision.
“Once we receive official communication about the dates and venues [of the tour], we will forward it to the government,” Rahman said. “The BCB is not the decision-maker in this matter. If the government agencies and our embassy declare Pakistan safe for travel, only then will we proceed.
“In our previous meeting, we agreed that any such situation would be referred to the foreign and home ministries. Once we get clearance from all relevant bodies, we will finalise the tour. Security concerns were more significant in the past, but Pakistan has proven it can ensure safety. Still, given the current circumstances, we need to assess whether the situation across the country is stable before sending the team.”
Before playing Pakistan, Bangladesh are scheduled to play two T20Is against UAE in Sharjah on May 17 and 19. They were then supposed to fly to Lahore on May 21.
[Cricinfo]
President Donald Trump has said the US has “no stronger partner” than Saudi Arabia during his first major foreign trip – a whirlwind visit of Gulf countries mainly focused on shoring up investment.
Speaking in Riyadh, the US president also pledged to lift all sanctions against Syria, saying it was now time for the country to move forward with “a chance at greatness”.
Day one of the tour saw the US and Saudi Arabia announce a $142bn (£107bn) arms deal, as well as other investments that the country’s crown prince said could eventually be worth $1tn.
Trump also made Saudi Arabia the first foreign stop during his first term, in 2017. The rest of his trip will include stops in Qatar and the UAE.
Trump’s arrival in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday was met with a grand reception, including a lavish lavender-coloured carpet rolled out to greet him. He had even chosen a purple tie to match it.
Riyadh swapped red carpets for lavender in 2021, saying that it was a symbol of the kingdom’s desert wildflowers and generosity.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Trump on the tarmac and provided an honour guard of Arabian horses to accompany his presidential limo.
In his remarks at an investment forum, Trump lauded the US-Saudi relationship as “more powerful than ever before”.
“From the moment we started we’ve seen wealth that has poured – and is pouring – into America,” he said.
Trump is trying to woo foreign investors to the US to boost the American economy, a key focus of his administration in the nearly four months of his second term.
“I like him too much,” Trump said of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de-facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman. “That’s why we give so much.”
The pomp and ceremony was a step up from the muted welcome for former US President Joe Biden, who travelled to the oil-rich kingdom in 2022 to seek their help in lowering petrol prices, fist-bumping the crown prince.
That visit came two years after he declared Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state following the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump flew to the Gulf to strike financial deals and argued in his speech that it is through this kind of commerce and economic development that the Middle East would transcend violence and division.
Underscoring his commitment to deal-making, Trump was joined by a number of business leaders including billionaire ally Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The high-profile executives are meeting a Saudi Arabia eager to diversify its oil-rich economy by increasing its artificial intelligence capabilities.
Mr Huang announced during the visit that Nvidia will sell more than 18,000 of its latest AI chips to Saudi company Humain.
During his address, Trump said it was his “dream” to have Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords, a deal brokered in his first administration that saw relations between Israel and some Gulf countries normalised for the first time.
But his good friend, Mohammed bin Salman, has made it clear that will not happen until there is a permanent end to the war in Gaza and a clear path to Palestinian statehood.
There is a limit to what this friendship can deliver.
Trump only briefly addressed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
He told those in attendance that people in Gaza deserved a “better future”, which had been held back by Hamas choosing “to kidnap, torture and target” for “political ends” – a reference to the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
Trump also announced he was lifting sanctions on Syria to improve the country’s new government, a move he suggested was requested by Mohammed bin Salman.
“Oh, what I do for the crown prince,” the US leader said.
American sanctions on Syria had been in place for over a decade, meant to apply pressure and economic pain against the dictatorship of former President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December.
Syria has since elected a new transitional president, creating an opening for renewed US diplomacy efforts.
The surprise announcement to lift the sanctions represents a sea change for Syria, described by its foreign minister Asaad Shibani as a “new start” in the country’s reconstruction path.
Robert Ford, who served as US ambassador to Syria under President Barack Obama, applauded the Trump administration’s move to lift sanctions.
“I visited Syria three months ago and the country is simply devastated after the 13-year civil war. It needs to rebuild, it needs reconstruction, it needs foreign financing to do that,” he told the BBC.
“So removing the sanctions, that will enable international capital flows to go into Syria from Gulf states, from other Arab states and from different aid agencies is absolutely vital.”
Trump was expected to meet Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia.
From Riyadh, Trump will head to both Qatar and the UAE, which has already committed to investing $1.4tn in the US over the next decade.
[BBC]
Latest News
BBC cameraman haunted by Gaza’s malnourished children captures Israeli strike on hospital
The war’s horrors multiply. The dead, the pieces of the dead. The dying. The starving. More and more of them now – all the weight of human suffering witnessed by a brave BBC cameraman in Gaza.
The urge to avert our gaze can be overpowering. But the cameramen who work for the BBC cannot turn away, and on Tuesday one of them became a casualty himself. For their safetynthe names of the cameramen in Gaza are not revealed.
The BBC cameraman was not seriously wounded, but that was a matter of luck. The Israeli bombs launched into the car park of the European Hospital in Khan Younis killed and wounded dozens.
The Israelis say the leader of Hamas was hiding in a command-and-control compound under the hospital. The army said it conducted a “precise strike” – and blamed Hamas for”cynically and cruelly exploiting the civilian population in and around the hospital”. Hamas denies such charges.
At the time of the attack, families whose sick children are to be evacuated from Gaza were gathering in the hospital. There were also families waiting to meet children returning from treatment abroad.
[BBC]
French Navy Ship ‘BEAUTEMPS BEAUPRE’ sets sail from Colombo
BCB to follow government directive before finalising Pakistan tour
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