A Pakistani court on Saturday acquitted jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the un-Islamic marriage case, the only case keeping the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party founder behind bars since August last year.

However, barely an hour after his acquittal in the case, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore approved the request to arrest the PTI leader in three cases linked to the unprecedented May 9 riots following his arrest in an alleged corruption case.

The PTI called his latest arrest a gimmick to keep the illegal imprisonment prolonged.

On February 3 -- days before the general elections on February 8 -- an Islamabad court convicted the couple based on a complaint filed by Bushra Bibi's ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Maneka, who alleged that they contracted marriage during the former first lady's Iddat period.

In Islam, a woman can't remarry before completing four months after divorce or the death of her husband.

The couple had challenged the sentence in a district and session court of the capital Islamabad where Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka heard the case.

The judge announced the judgment in the afternoon after reserving the verdict earlier in the day, acquitting Khan, 71 and Bushra, 49.

"If they are not wanted in any other case, then PTI founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi should be released [from jail] immediately," the judge said after accepting their appeals.

But it was not clear if he would be released. However, it was the only case for which Khan was in jail after the Toshakhana corruption case sentence was suspended and acquittal in the cipher case.

The cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August last year after he was sentenced in the Toshakhana corruption case and subsequently sentenced in other cases ahead of the February 8 elections.

Bibi's ex-husband, Maneka, filed the case against the couple in November 2023, alleging that they married without her observing the mandatory waiting period of Iddat. He asked the court to declare the marriage null and void.

Khan and Bibi married in 2018, the year Khan went on to win elections and become prime minister.