• Application cites rapidly deteriorating eyesight and risk to her remaining eye
• Petitioner says plea has remained undecided for about 19 months
ISLAMABAD: Former first lady Bushra Imran, currently serving a seven-year sentence at Central Jail Adiala, on Thursday moved an urgent application before the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), seeking an early hearing of her criminal appeal.
The application, filed through her counsel Barrister Salman Safdar, cited a rapidly deteriorating ocular condition that threatens the sight in her remaining eye.
On July 30, Bushra Imran, wife of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan, had sought suspension of the seven-year sentence awarded to her on Jan 17, 2025, by an Accountability Court in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
The criminal appeal had contended that, being a woman and suffering from a serious medical condition, she was entitled to suspension of her sentence, as similar relief was contemplated under the first proviso to Section 497(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
In Thursday’s application for an early hearing, Ms Bushra pleaded that the role attributed to her by the prosecution was confined to aiding and abetting, rather than any primary or substantive act constituting the gravamen of the offence.
The application stated that the applicant, aged 54, was convicted on Jan 17, 2025, under Section 9(a)(xii) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, for aiding and abetting.
It further pleaded that she was a woman and that it was settled practice, consistent with the spirit of the first proviso to Section 497(1), CrPC, for courts to entertain and hear female litigants, particularly those in custody, on a priority basis.
The applicant regretted that she had already suffered grave and irreversible prejudice due to prolonged delay before the Islamabad High Court (IHC). During the pendency of her application for suspension of sentence, she developed a serious ocular ailment and underwent surgery on one eye on April 16, 2026.
She continues to face a serious risk to her remaining eye after undergoing further medical examinations and check-ups, details of which were also reflected in a medical report submitted by the Superintendent of Central Jail Adiala before the Supreme Court, the application said.
The application also cited the report, which stated that the patient had been diagnosed with Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD) in her right eye. She subsequently developed a “black curtain” and acute deterioration in vision, was declared an ocular emergency and underwent surgery at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital.
A later examination in jail revealed new opacity and PVD in progress in her previously unaffected left eye, the application said.
“The continued delay in fixation directly imperils the applicant’s health and eyesight,” the application regretted, adding that the deterioration was demonstrably evident from the harm already suffered due to the delay before the IHC.
Taking the period before the IHC and the FCC together, the applicant’s application/appeal against the dismissal of her request for suspension of sentence had remained undecided for approximately 19 months, the application contended.
The present application was confined to the limited question of delay in adjudicating the applicant’s request for suspension of sentence and did not require the FCC to undertake any detailed examination of the merits of the main appeal, it pleaded.
“Therefore, the application be disposed of through a short, focused hearing, without placing any undue burden on the court’s time,” the application said. It prayed that the FCC allow the application and fix the appeal for hearing during the week commencing Sept 21, 2026, in the interest of justice.
Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2026
