Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has married spiritual guide Bushra Maneka, his party said on Sunday, thus ending weeks of speculation about the union. Khan, a cricketer turned politician, married Bushra Bibi (also known as Pinki Pir) in a simple ceremony held in Lahore yesterday,
Reports of his marriage has been doing the rounds since January. Last month he made headlines after asking his supporters in a tweet to pray he finds "personal happiness which, except for a few years, I have been deprived of", following still unverified claims he had married his spiritual advisor.
Then, the flamboyant cricketer-turned-politician had questioned if he had "sold" state secrets to India or "laundered" the country's wealth to deserve a bad press.
Khan has previously referred to Watto, a mother of five, as his 'spiritual adviser' and someone whose guidance he valued.
The PTI leader has sought to shed the playboy reputation of his younger years and has built a large political following in the northern parts of Pakistan, especially with the conservative Pashtun population.
Over the past year he has also seen his political stock rise following the ouster of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif through judicial proceedings that Khan had championed.
Bushra Maneka, who is in her 40s, is from the Wattoo clan, of which the Manekas are a sub-clan. She was married to Khawar Farid Maneka, a senior customs official in Islamabad, the Dawn newspaper reported.