ISLAMABAD: Senior members of the PTI legal team on Tuesday approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) seeking early fixation of a criminal appeal filed by former first lady Bushra Bibi in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case.

The former first lady was handed a seven-year sentence in the case in January last year, and is currently imprisoned at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. The court found Imran and Bushra guilty of giving undue favours to property tycoon Malik Riaz in retrieving his laundered money from the United Kingdom.

Bushra, along with Imran, had initially moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the suspension of her sentence in July last year. But the high court dismissed their requests in May 2026, observing that their appeals against their convictions had already been fixed for hearing.

On Tuesday, led by PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja and Barrister Salman Safdar, the lawyers requested the court office to fix the criminal appeal for an early hearing before an appropriate bench of the top court.

The court office assured the delegation that the appeal would be numbered within the week and fixed for hearing accordingly, Advocate Intezar Hussain Panjutha told Dawn.

He said no fresh application was filed on Tuesday, though a verbal request was made for early registration and fixation of the case.

Earlier, Barrister Salman Safdar had filed an application before the FCC on Sept 17, citing a rapidly deteriorating ocular condition that threatened the appellant’s remaining eyesight.

The application said Bushra’s role, as attributed by the prosecution, was confined to aiding and abetting and did not involve any primary or substantive act constituting the gravamen of the offence.

It said the applicant was 54 years old and had been convicted under Section 9(a)(xii) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999, for aiding and abetting.

The application also argued that Bushra was a woman and that it was a settled practice, consistent with the spirit of the first proviso to Section 497(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, that female litigants, particularly those in custody, be heard on a priority basis.

It regretted that she had already suffered “grave and irreversible prejudice” because of prolonged proceedings before the IHC, where, during the pendency of her application for suspension of sentence, she developed a serious ocular condition and underwent surgery on one eye on April 16, 2026.

“She continues to face a real risk to her remaining eye,” the application said, citing further medical examinations and the details contained in a synopsis report submitted by the superintendent of Central Jail Adiala before the Supreme Court.

According to the report, Bushra was diagnosed with Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD) in her right eye. She subsequently developed a “black curtain” and acute deterioration, 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,” it said, adding that the deterioration already suffered was demonstrably linked to the delay before the IHC.

The application contended that, taking into account the proceedings before the IHC and the FCC, Bushra’s application/appeal against the dismissal of her suspension-of-sentence plea had remained undecided for approximately 19 months.

It said the application was confined to the “limited question of delay” in adjudication of her request for suspension of sentence and did not require the FCC to undertake a detailed examination of the merits of the main appeal.

The application requested the FCC to dispose of the matter through a short hearing and fix the appeal for hearing in the week commencing Sept 21, “in the interest of justice”.