IHC fixes Nov 10 to hear Imran, Bushra Bibi £190m appeals

The Islamabad High Court has fixed November 10 for hearing the appeals filed by PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi against their convictions in the £190 million case, Business Recorder reported.

A division bench of the court headed by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and including Justice Muhammad Asif will take up the appeals. The same bench had earlier accepted an application from the couple's counsel complaining that he had been denied access to his clients.

Lawyer Salman Safdar told the court at the last hearing that he had met Imran Khan on the bench's directions but that nothing had been arranged for Bushra Bibi. "My last meeting with Bushra Bibi was in December 2025," he said. "Not a single meeting has been arranged with her in 10 months. I request that one meeting with my client be arranged."

In the application, Safdar said meetings were not being arranged despite clear orders of the Islamabad High Court, leaving him unable to take instructions for the appeals. Imran Khan's three sisters are also in custody, so instructions could not be taken from them either.

Safdar told the bench that a petition on the suspension of Bushra Bibi's sentence is pending before the Federal Constitutional Court and asked that the appeals be listed after that court decides it. Hearing the appeals now, he argued, would make his case before the Federal Constitutional Court ineffective.

Senior advocate Sardar Latif Khosa could not reach the court because of road closures, and Safdar presented an application on his behalf. Advocate Khalid Yousuf Chaudhry said the relevant court office had earlier refused to receive the application, telling lawyers that miscellaneous applications are not accepted on the day of a hearing and should be moved during proceedings.

Safdar congratulated the court on starting its digital working system but said obstructions and containers remained on the roads despite its clear orders.

He also questioned the timing of the listing, saying the temperature outside was very high and it was strange that the case had been fixed then, and pointed to the registrar's office, which he said should not have scheduled it. Referring to an earlier order of the bench, he said, "We get relief from the court sometimes and sometimes we do not. When aggrieved, we go in appeal. I am the one affected by an order this court passed. It was summer, sir, perhaps you were angry."

The chief justice asked whether he would begin arguments that day. Safdar said the earlier order had made him wonder why he had been removed from the case. Justice Dogar asked whether any order had led him to believe the court was biased. "No, no, nothing like that," Safdar replied.