A Pakistani court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on petitions requesting suspension of sentences handed out to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the ‘iddat’ case, a judgment that was widely criticised by civil society and women activists. 

Khan, 71, and Bushra, 49, were sentenced to seven years in prison each on February 3 by a trial court for contracting their marriage during iddat, a mandatory period for a woman in Islam to wait before a second marriage after the death of her husband or divorce.

Islamabad district and sessions court on Saturday, while resuming the hearing for pleas seeking suspension of sentences, asked the counsel for Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Maneka, to conclude his arguments by June 25 as the court would then take up the main appeals against their convictions, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Khan and his wife had challenged the conviction before district and sessions judge Shahrukh Arjumand, who recused himself at a time when the hearing had been concluded and the court was supposed to announce the verdict, the report said.

Subsequently, the case was transferred to Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Afzal Majoka. However, the counsel for Bushra Bibi had filed a petition before the Islamabad High Court seeking her release on bail and suspension of her sentence.

Separately, the Islamabad High Court had ordered the sessions court to decide in 10 days on pleas by the PTI founder and his wife. The judgment was widely criticised by civil society and women activists for being a “blow to women’s right to dignity and privacy”. There were protests by activists in Islamabad against the verdict and a demonstration in Karachi against the “state’s intrusion into people’s private lives” had also denounced it, the Dawn reported. Judge Majoka reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments from both sides. The verdict will be announced on June 27 at 3 pm, the report said.

On Monday, the 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician moved the Supreme Court, seeking an expedited hearing of his appeal against his disqualification by the election commission in the Toshakhana corruption case.

In December last year, the PTI founder challenged in the Lahore High Court the Election Commission of Pakistan’s ruling of disqualifying him for five years for not declaring Toshakhana gifts in his statement of assets and liabilities.