Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Khan, were both sentenced to 14 years in prison on January 31 in a corruption case, a day after he was convicted to 10 years for leaking state secrets in a separate trial, his Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party said.
The Anti-Corruption Court in Islamabad on January 31 found Khan and his wife guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) during his term from 2018 until his ouster in a no-confidence vote in April 2022.
The court also barred Khan from holding public office for 10 years, the PTI said. His wife, commonly referred to as Bushra Bibi, was arrested shortly after the verdict was handed down, it said.
Khan is already in prison after being sentenced to three years in August by another court for selling the gifts received during his premiership in the case known as Tosha Khana, after the place where dignitaries are supposed to hand over items received while in office.
While linked to the same matter, the January 31 verdict followed a separate investigation by Pakistan's anti-corruption agency, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which had also charged his wife in the case.
The new conviction came a day after a special court sentenced Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, one of his PTI party deputies, to 10 years in prison each for revealing state secrets.
SEE ALSO: Former Pakistani PM Khan Sentenced To 10 Years For Revealing State SecretsThe January 30 was announced at a hearing held inside the Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi after multiple hearings were held on the premises.
Khan has already been barred from taking part in parliamentary elections scheduled for February 8 because of a previous conviction stemming from his waving of a confidential diplomatic document at a public rally following his ouster in 2022.
At the time, Khan claimed that the document, referred to as "Cipher," was proof that his ouster had been orchestrated by Pakistan's powerful military in coordination with the United States, both of which have rejected the accusations.
The document has not been made public, but it is apparently a diplomatic cable communication between Islamabad's embassy in Washington and the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
Despite his being banned from taking part in the upcoming elections, the 71-year-old former cricket superstar and his PTI party still enjoy huge popularity in Pakistan.
On October 21, three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Khan's longtime rival, returned to Pakistan from four years of self-imposed exile and launched the election campaign of his Pakistan Muslim League party at a huge rally in the eastern city of Lahore.
The Muslim League and Khan's PTI are seen as the main competitors in the upcoming elections.
Pakistan, a nation of 241 million people, is grappling with a severe economic crisis that has seen living standards plunge rapidly.