The Islamabad High Court on Monday dismissed the petitions of former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi seeking the suspension of their sentences in the £190 million corruption case.

In its ruling, the court observed that since the main appeals in the case have already been fixed for hearing, the petitions for the suspension of sentences have become infructuous.

The court has set the date for hearing the main appeals as May 7, where a two-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar, will conduct a hearing of the case.

Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi’s lawyers had requested that the petitions for sentence suspension be heard before the main appeals, but the court rejected this plea.

The court stated that once the main appeals are scheduled for hearing, the petitions for suspension of sentences lose their significance.

As a result, Bushra Bibi’s petition for the suspension of her sentence has also been rendered ineffective and dismissed.

In this high-profile £190 million case, an accountability court had sentenced Imran Khan to 14 years in prison and imposed a fine of Rs1 million.

Similarly, his wife, Bushra Bibi, was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined Rs500,000.