Pakistani court suspends arrest warrants for prime minister’s daughter, son-in-law in corruption case

Justice Rana Arif of the Lahore Accountability Court on Wednesday stayed the arrest warrant against Rabia Imran and her husband Imran Ali Yusuf in the Punjab Saf Pani Corporation grand corruption case, saying every citizen was entitled to a free and fair trial, the official said.

The accountability court issued permanent arrest warrants against them in 2022 during the tenure of then Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Rabia and Youssef fled to the UK in 2022, and a court subsequently declared them criminals.

“The prime minister’s daughter and son-in-law told the court through their lawyers that the arrest warrant could not be executed as they were abroad but now they wanted to return to Pakistan. Therefore, they surrendered before the court and faced trial. They said they might be arrested at the airport as the red warrant was issued against them,” the official said.

“The judge accepted their request to surrender before the court and directed Rabia and Imran to appear before the court on May 5, 2026,” the official said.

Interestingly, the National Accountability Bureau, the anti-corruption agency that filed a multi-billion dollar corruption case against the couple, said it would not object if the court suspended the arrest warrants against them.

Shehbaz was also involved in the case but was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party claimed that the acquittal of Shehbaz and other members of the ruling coalition in various large-scale corruption cases was the result of “a damaged judicial system” and “NAB’s relationship with the Pakistan People’s Liberation Front.”

PTI claimed the acquittals represented the “end of justice” and accused the judiciary of acting as a “silent accomplice” in state-sponsored political terrorism.

Khan, 73, was ousted through a no-confidence motion in April 2022. He was subsequently arrested in August 2023 and has since been imprisoned for multiple cases.

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.