Imran Khan’s hat-trick

When Imran Khan, Pakistan’s legendary all-rounder, married Bushra Maneka early in February, it was an off-field hat-trick. This is the third marriage of the 65-year-old-cricketer-turned-politician, second within a span of three years.

Bushra is a faith healer and Khan is not her first husband. In the picture released soon after the wedding, Khan is seen sitting next to his newest burqa-clad bride, her face covered with a red veil.

Every change of wife, it seems, is a reflection of the changing contours of Khan’s politics and shifting priorities in his own life. Considered as one of the finest cricket captains of Pakistan, the charismatic Khan is a born leader and for long was the poster boy of world cricket.

It was only after his retirement from cricket, ending a career spanning from 1971 to 1992, that Khan married for the first time in 1995 Jemima Goldsmith – the daughter of late Sir James Michael Goldsmith, an Anglo-French financier, business tycoon and politician.

Soon after, Khan took the plunge in politics by founding a party by the name of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which was speculated to have been funded by his father-in-law. The marriage lasted for nine years; they had two sons before they parted ways in 2004. It was, however, not a bitter separation, though the Pakistani media was harsh on Goldsmith for years.

She was portrayed as an outsider and a “liability” to the political career of Pakistan’s most popular cricketer. Because of her Jewish origin, some unscrupulous politician attacked her as part of a “Zionist conspiracy against Pakistan”. She has on more than one occasion exhibited loyalty to her former Pakistani husband and supports his endeavours in politics. Goldsmith now leads the life of an activist and journalist based in London.

Imran’s second marriage, 10 years after the first ended, lasted for only 10 months, from January 2015 to October 2015. Reham Ramzan is the daughter of a rich doctor, Nayyar Ramzan. A Pashtun of the Lughmani clan, she is fluent in four languages: English, Urdu, Pashto and Hindko — a dialect of Punjabi. The strong-headed Reham, a journalist by profession, was also a BBC weather presenter, and hails from an influential family.

Her uncle, Abdul Hakeen Khan, was governor of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province after he retired as the chief justice of Peshawar High Court. Her first husband, Ejaz Rehman, was a British national and psychiatrist by profession. Her three children from the first marriage lived with her after she married Khan.

Daily Mail carried a story when their marriage ended in a huff, titled “That’s ruff! How Imran divorced his BBC weather girl wife by text… after she banned his beloved dogs from sharing their room.” Khan, reportedly, texted her thrice: “I divorce you.” Reham confirmed her divorce via social media, insisting that it was mutual and amicable.

So after having married two English-speaking suave women, Khan has started his third innings with a veiled spiritual healer, Bushra. Like her predecessors, she’s rich, with a personal worth reportedly to the tune of $13 million. Expectedly, she’s from an influential, religious and conservative Wattoo family hailing from Pakistan’s Punjab. A divorcee with two sons, she is popularly known as Pinki Pir.

The story goes that Khan went to her in his quest for peace and solace and was enamoured by her spiritual energy. He was quick to acknowledge her as his “spiritual mentor”, romance blossomed and culminated in marriage. Bushra’s immediate family was not particularly happy with the alliance, they were conspicuous by their absence at the wedding.

How will this marriage affect his politics? Initially, Khan’s party, PTI, started rather disastrously in terms of electoral performance. It was only in the general election of 2013 that it emerged as the second largest party by vote share and bagged 30 parliamentary seats. PTI is in power in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Khan is seen as the reformist who supports stringent action to end endemic corruption in Pakistan. He stands for the rule of law and social justice and was a fervent critic of General Pervez Musharraf’s regime. Lately, he’s seen as the alternative to the ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, after the apex court of Pakistan declared the latter unfit to hold public office following his name appearing in the Panama Papers.

Now that radical groups with links to militancy and terrorism have made inroads in Pakistani politics at the cost of traditional parties, Khan marrying an orthodox Muslim will definitely serve him well in the future political slugfest. This marriage could easily prove to be the turning point in his political career.

Only time will tell if she’s just another in a line of wives, with a few more to follow, of Pakistan’s original playboy.

This story was published in the Patriot.