Former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was jailed for seven years along with his wife Bushra Bibi, after their marriage was ruled illegal.
The pair were already facing 14 years behind bars after being sentenced on Wednesday for corruption.
Khan, 71 and Bibi, 49 failed to wait a mandatory three months after Bibi’s former marriage before tying the knot in 2018.
Bibi, a former spiritual healer, had been previously married to another man in November 2017.
But who is Imran Khan’s third wife, sometimes described as his ‘spiritual mentor’?
Former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was sentenced to seven years in prison along with his third wife Bushra Bibi, after their marriage was ruled illegal
Bushra Bibi (pictured) married Khan in a low-key ceremony in 2018, just months after divorcing her previous husband
Bushra Bibi was born in Pakpattan, central Punjab to a politically influential family who were part of the region’s Watto clan.
The faith healer’s first marriage was with customs officer Khawar Maneka in 1989, with whom she had five children, two sons and three daughters.
She met Khan after the former cricket captain-turned-politician travelled to her for advice back in 2015, according to Gulf News.
Khan reportedly proposed to Bibi without even seeing her face and only met her before their wedding while she was covered in a full veil.
Bibi is said to have an association with Sufism, a mystical Islamic belief in which Khan has said he has long had an interest.
After her husband was elected as prime minister in 2018, Bibi was thought to be the first First Lady of Pakistan to wear a Niqab – the long garment worn by some Muslim women over their face and body.
But her life took another drastic change just four years later when Khan was ousted in a vote of no confidence in 2022.
Pictured: Bibi arriving with Khan at a high court hearing in Lahore on May 15 2023
Her role in Khan’s corruption, in which he was accused of selling gifts illegally including perfumes and diamond jewellery, is still unclear.
Khan is banned from standing in the country’s upcoming general election scheduled for February 8.
She was then sued by her former husband of 28 years Maneka for ‘fraudulent marriage and fornication’, the newspaper Dawn reported.
Despite rejecting the case of fornication, the court allowed the fraudulent marriage claim to proceed, before handing her and Khan the maximum sentence after finding that they violated Muslim law’s requiring that women wait at least three months after getting divorced before remarrying.
The couple were also fined 500,000 rupees ($1,800) each, in what was Khan’s fourth conviction since being removed from office.
Khan and Bibi also face another graft case, allegedly involving giving undue benefits to a property tycoon in return for establishing an Islamic university.
Along with Khan, she now faces many years as a prisoner, and is currently being held on house arrest at her home in Islamabad until further notice.
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