RAWALPINDI: The £190 million case verdict involving Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, has been postponed for the third time. Accountability court Judge Nasir Javed expressed dismay over the no-show of the accused, saying that he had been present at the court since 8:30am, leading to the postponement of the verdict which will now be announced on January 17. Khan had previously claimed that the verdict — initially delayed on December 23, 2024, and again on January 6, 2025 — was postponed to "pressurise him". However, he did not appear in court today. "I have been sitting in the courtroom for two hours, but none of them have appeared today," the judge told reporters present in the courtroom, adding: "Let's give them another chance." The National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) prosecution team, the media, and the court staff were present in the court room, but none from the defence were in attendance. While the sentence was scheduled to be handed down at 11am and the judge postponed the announcement before that, ' reporter Shabbir Dar said that the parties involved generally reach ahead of time. Today's deferment in the £190m reference verdict — termed an "open-and-shut case" by Senator Faisal Vawda — comes amid the government's hope for justice as expressed by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. Whereas, Vawda on the other hand, in his press conference a day earlier, said that the PTI founder "committed a crime and will face punishment" in the settlement case. "When Khan was signing it, I warned him that it would lead to a NAB case [...] Being popular doesn't mean you're above everything else," he said. Reacting to the deferment while speaking to the media outside Adiala jail, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan ruled out the verdict's postponement as part of any deal. "We were all waiting today at the court as the court staff had informed us that the verdict would be announced today at 11am," he said. Terming the case as a politically motivated one Gohar remarked: "The Al-Qadir Trust case is politically motivated and part of an unfair process whose aim is to compromise Khan sahib, his wife was also dragged into this case to pressure Khan". "He [Khan] has neither harmed the national exchequer nor had he benefited from the university. He is only a trustee. This is a baseless case," noted the PTI chairman, adding: "Khan sahib will not bow down, he will stand firm. He will keep fighting for the people, judiciary, and the Constitution". "We have repeatedly emphasised that Khan sahib has stressed that the Al-Qadir Trust case's verdict should be pronounced [....] It's a writing on the wall: we have been subjected to injustice, the trial courts have been unjust to us," he said while lamenting the PTI founder's legal woes and the postponement of the verdict. Explaining further, Gohar said that Khan would have appeared, while Bushra was on her way. The PTI chairman added that several others, including Khan's sisters, were already there in the courtroom. "We will move higher courts. Like all previous cases, we will also have this case dismissed," Gohar vowed, reiterating that the former prime minister did not benefit from the Al-Qadir Trust. PTI's Secretary General Salman Akram Raja also echoed Gohar's remarks and said: "The negotiation process is underway [....] However, if someone wants to give the impression that the verdict has been delayed due to these talks, then it is completely false. We will not enter into any deals". Stressing that the former prime minister would prove his innocence in courts as he did in the iddat and cypher cases, Raja said: "We will fight the cases and not enter any deals". The lawyer clarified that the party was not seeking relief for anybody and there was no link between the ongoing talks with the government and the £190m case. The couple, along with others, has been accused by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its December 2023 reference for allegedly adjusting Rs50 billion — £190 million at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government as part of the agreement with a property tycoon. Subsequently, the then-prime minister got approval for the settlement with the UK crime agency from his cabinet on December 3, 2019, without disclosing the details of the confidential agreement. It was decided that the money would be submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the tycoon. According to NAB officials, the PTI founder and his wife obtained land worth billions of rupees from the property tycoon, to build an educational institute, in return for striking a deal to give legal cover to the property tycoon’s black money received from the UK crime agency. Later, the Al-Qadir Trust was established in Islamabad a few weeks after the PTI-led government approved the agreement with the property tycoon. The accountability watchdog arrested the PTI founder on November 13 last year in connection with the said case. NAB then interrogated Khan and Bushra for 17 days in the Adiala Jail. The trial began after filing of the NAB reference on December 1, 2023. On 27 February 2024, charges were formally filed against the couple. Notable witnesses against the PTI founder included his former cabinet member Pervez Khattak, former federal minister Zubaida Jalal, ex-principal secretary Azam Khan, and the chief financial officer of the Al-Qadir University. The court also declared six co-accused, including Zulfi Bukhari, Farhat Shahzadi, Mirza Shahzad Akbar and Zia-ul-Mustafa Nasim, as absconders, ordering the freezing of their assets and bank accounts. During the proceedings, the Islamabad High Court granted bail to the disqualified premier in the £190 million reference, while the trial court approved pre-arrest bail for Bushra. The PTI founder-chairman submitted a list of 16 witnesses to the court, but the request to summon them was rejected. Over the course of the case, four judges were replaced with Judge Muhammad Bashir, Judge Nasir Javed Rana, Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich, and then again Judge Rana presiding over the hearings.