Bushra Bibi, the wife of Pakistan’s ex-prime minister Imran Khan, was released from jail on Thursday, his party said, nine months after she was imprisoned alongside him in the runup to elections.
In the days before the February polls, Bibi was convicted of graft and illegal marriage alongside opposition leader Khan in what he claimed was a campaign to sideline him from the vote.
“She was kept in jail to put pressure on Imran Khan,” the chairman of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party Gohar Ali Khan told reporters.
“I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all PTI supporters on the release of Bushra Bibi, and we offer our gratitude to God.”
Following the election, the illegal marriage case collapsed on appeal and Bibi’s graft sentence was suspended.
