A special central judge at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail on Thursday issued arrest warrants for former first lady Bushra Bibi after she failed to appear in the Toshakhana-II case.
When Judge Shah Rukh Arjumand took up the case against Bushra Bibi and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder Imran Khan, but she failed to appear before the court.
Despite being summoned, Bushra Bibi failed to attend the proceedings, prompting the court to issue her arrest warrants.
The court also served a notice to her surety provider, Malik Tariq Mehmood Noon, and adjourned the case until Monday.
It is worth noting that Mehmood Noon had previously submitted a bail bond on Bushra Bibi’s behalf.
In late October, Bushra Bibi was granted bail in the Toshakhana-II case against a surety bond of Rs1 million. Following the court orders, she was released from Adiala jail and subsequently, she traveled to Peshawar.
Earlier, an accountability court in Islamabad had upheld non-bailable arrest warrants for Bushra Bibi in the £190 million reference case.
The court had also issued a show-cause notice to her surety provider. Senior defence counsel had assured the court that Bushra Bibi would be present at the next hearing.
The new Toshakhana reference against the couple came to the fore after NAB arrested them shortly after a district and sessions court in Islamabad acquitted Khan and Bushra in the iddat case — also known as the un-Islamic nikah case — which was the last hurdle in the couple’s release from jail.