ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Khan were arrested by Pakistani authorities in a case involving the illegal sale of state gifts on Saturday after a court accepted their appeals against a ruling that they had violated the country’s marriage law and ordered their immediate release.
Khan and his wife were sentenced to seven years in prison and fined in February by a court that ruled their 2018 marriage broke the law. Bushra was accused of not completing the waiting period mandated by Islam, called “Iddat,” after divorcing her previous husband and marrying Khan.
Khan has been in jail after being convicted in four cases since last August. Two of the cases have since been suspended and he was acquitted in a third, so the Iddat case was the only one keeping him in prison.
However, shortly after the local court’s verdict in his favor, the former prime minister and his wife were arrested in a lingering corruption reference against them, commonly known as the Toshakhana – or state repository – case, preventing the possibility of them walking out of the jail.
“We have just received information that Imran Khan and former First Lady Bushra Bibi have been arrested in the Toshakhana case,” Naeem Haider Panjutha, Khan’s spokesperson on legal affairs, announced in a brief video message.
Prior to that, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had said he had been arrested in three more cases on the instruction of an Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore in the May 9 case related to violent protests last year.
These protests followed the former premier’s brief detention on corruption charges, with people carrying PTI flags vandalizing government buildings and military properties in different parts of the country.
Khan was viewed as a prime suspect in the case, with the authorities suggesting that the rioting was planned beforehand by the top PTI leaders.
The PTI described the new cases as “another gimmick” to prolong Khan’s imprisonment, saying all charges against him in May 9 cases were based on testimony by police officials.
Shortly before these developments, Additional Session Judge Afzal Majoka dismissed charges against the couple in Iddat case, ordering their release.
In a short order of the court seen by Arab News, the judge said the Superintendent Central Prison Adiala, where Khan and Bushra are jailed, was “required and authorized” to release them “if they are not required in any other case.”
“Appeals filed by the appellants Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi and Bushra Imran Khan have been accepted and appellants have been acquitted of the charge,” the order said.
Khan’s convictions had ruled the 71-year-old out of the February general elections as convicted felons cannot run for public office under Pakistani law. Arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician, Khan says all cases against him are motivated to keep him out of politics.
The criminal complaint against Khan and Bushra’s marriage was brought by her ex-husband, Khawar Maneka, to whom she was married for about 30 years.
Khan has often called Bushra his spiritual leader. She is known for her devotion to Sufism, a mystical form of Islam.
Born Bushra Riaz Wattoo, she changed her name to Khan after her marriage. Her husband and followers commonly refer to her as Bushra Bibi or Bushra Begum, titles that denote respect in the Urdu language.
Khan’s two previous marriages — to Jemima Goldsmith, daughter of tycoon James Goldsmith, and television journalist Reham Nayyar Khan — ended in divorce.
Ex-PM Khan, wife arrested on new charges after acquittal in ‘illegal’ marriage case
https://arab.news/9ajzc
Ex-PM Khan, wife arrested on new charges after acquittal in ‘illegal’ marriage case
- Khan, wife Bushra were sentenced to seven years in prison in February by court that ruled their 2018 marriage broke Islamic law
- Authorities brought new cases related to May 9 violence, illegal sale of state gifts against them while they were being released
Pakistan likely to import around 7 million cotton bales this year as local production nearly halves
- Pakistan produced 5.3 million cotton bales by mid-December against 10 million targeted, government data shows
- While the imports may ensure smooth supply of raw material, they may put pressure on foreign exchange reserves
KARACHI: Pakistan is likely to import around 7 million cotton bales this year owing to a decline of nearly half the annual target set by the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA), industry stakeholders said on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s cotton production stood at 5.3 million bales each weighing 170 kilograms as of Dec. 15, according to state-run Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) data. The FCA had set a target of 10.2 million bales in April.
Karachi Cotton Brokers Forum (KCBF) Chairman Naseem Usman Osawala sees the country’s cotton production declining by 46 percent this season, compared to the FCA target.
“The country is expected to produce about 5.5 million bales this year,” he told Arab News, adding Pakistan would have to import around 7 million bales to meet requirement of its textile industry which consumes about 12 million bales a year.
The country had sown cotton over 2.002 million hectares, which was down by 11 percent from the targeted 2.26 million hectares.
Muhammad Waqas Ghani, head of research at Karachi-based JS Global Capital brokerage firm, said the South Asian country is likely to miss its cotton output target of 10 million bales.
“At the current rate of arrival, the output can reach 7 million bales at its best,” he added.
Cotton is a raw material for Pakistan’s largest textile industry and was the worst hit crop by climate-induced floods earlier this year.
Osawala said Pakistan’s cotton production has been falling because of an increasing number of sugar mills being established in the country’s cotton-producing regions.
Courts in Pakistan have been issuing significant rulings to bar the establishment of sugar mills in the designated cotton belt areas of the Punjab province. In 2018, the Supreme Court ordered relocation of three sugar mills from cotton-producing districts in southern Punjab to protect the crop.
Since cotton prices are low in the international market, textile millers would go for more imports, according to the KCBF chairman.
On Dec. 22, the price of cotton in the New York market stood at as much as 65.85 cents per pound, 1.64 cents lower than last year, according to the PCCC data.
Osawala said Pakistan’s increasing textile imports are also “hurting local cotton production.”
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ (PBS) July-November data, the country had imported raw cotton, synthetic fiber, synthetic and artificial silk yarn and worn clothing worth $2.82 billion, 5 percent more than the imports during the same period last year.
Speaking of the impact of Pakistan’s falling cotton production, Kamran Arshad, chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), said the millers would have to import “a lot of cotton” this year.
“I think approximately 7-7.5 million bales will have to be imported this year,” he said.
The textile and apparel sector is Pakistan’s largest exporter, accounting for more than half of the country’s overall exports and contributing around 8.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by employing nearly 40 percent of the industrial labor force. But high energy costs and outdated infrastructure among other factors continue to slow growth and leave the country trailing regional peers.
In the last fiscal year, Pakistan imported as much as 6.2 million cotton bales each weighing 220 kilograms, mostly from Brazil and the United States, according to KCBF Chairman Arshad.
Shankar Talreja, head of research at Karachi-based Topline Securities, said Pakistan is likely to import cotton worth $1.2 billion this year “considering the requirement.”
“The full-year import of cotton is likely to remain over $1 billion,” Talreja said.
Economic experts say while importing more cotton would ensure smooth supply of raw material to Pakistan’s textile sector, it may put pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves that rose to $15.9 billion last week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a $1.2 billion tranche under Pakistan’s $7 billion loan program.
