ISLAMABAD: After spending over a year in custody, former Pakistan parliamentarian and ex-PM Imran Khan loyalist Aliya Hamza was released from prison this week on a high court’s directives.
Hamza was among hundreds of Khan supporters who poured onto Pakistan’s streets to protest their leader’s arrest in a graft case on May 9, 2023. Protesters ransacked military and government properties, which included the house of a senior military official in the eastern city of Lahore.
Hamza was arrested in the aftermath of the protests and booked under various charges of rioting on May 9. Other supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party were tried by military courts after authorities promised to bring the perpetrators of the violence to justice.
The former parliamentarian’s husband, Hamza Jamil Malik, had petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC) against his wife’s detention. Malik’s counsel told the court on Tuesday she had been imprisoned at the Gujranwala Central Jail despite being granted bail in all cases against her. He petitioned the court for her release, asking it to stop authorities from shifting Hamza to another province from the jail.
On Wednesday, the LHC ordered authorities to release Hamza from prison.
“By the grace of god, I have returned [from jail] with respect,” Hamza said in a video message shortly after her release, adding that she had been in custody for 15 months and four days.
“God willing, Khan and his wife will be with us soon.”
Khan’s PTI says it has been facing a crackdown and mass arrests of its members for standing by Khan, who has been in jail since August last year. Pakistani authorities deny the allegations.
Last month, Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were arrested by Pakistani authorities in a case involving the illegal sale of state gifts, 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. Bibi was accused of not completing the waiting period mandated by Islam, called “Iddat,” after divorcing her previous husband and marrying Khan.
The ex-premier 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.
Arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician, Khan says the cases against him are “politically motivated,” aimed at keeping him from returning to power. Pakistani authorities deny this.
