ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan, 62, finally tied the knot with journalist Reham Khan, 41, at a wedding ceremony in which none of his family members was present.Even his two teenage sons were not present at the event held at Imran’s sprawling Bani Gala residence. Imran says the property was gifted to him by his former spouse Jemima.
Imran’s sisters, who are in Lahore, were also astonished to learn through the media that their brother had married Reham Khan on Thursday afternoon.It is not yet known whether Reham will continue her stint as a TV host after her second marriage. She is a mother of three.
Imran broke the news of his marriage to the nation on the heels of a fresh ultimatum to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that his government should form a judicial commission by January 18 to probe the 2013 polls or his party would again take to the roads.
Mufti Saeed, who heads a beautiful seminary near Chattar Park, performed the Nikah attended by a small number of persons, including Imran’s close friend Zakir Khan and his aide Aun Chaudhry. Rs100,000 was fixed as Mehr.
Imran’s statement that he wanted to make a new Pakistan so that he could marry remained the focus of the media for many days and interesting comments were made on the social media about this unexpected statement.
One source told The News that Reham’s young daughter was also present on the occasion to greet her mother.Imran’s sister Aleema Khan said they were neither invited to the event by anyone nor they had prior information about it.It is speculated that even after learning through the media about Imran’s wedding with Reham, his sisters apparently were not happy.
Imran’s sisters had been active during the PTI sit-in at the D-Chowk from August to December. It is still a mystery why his sisters were not present at their only brother’s second marriage.
There have been speculations about Imran’s marriage to Reham since
November last year. So much so, it was claimed by some sources that either Imran and Reham had got engaged on November 1 or their Nikah ceremony was held on that day.
“As far as I know, no such ceremony was held earlier,” was a brief reply to an SMS this correspondent sent on Reham’s cellphone to know exactly what was the real position.Some of PTI’s Islamabad-based workers, while talking to this correspondent, were excited to know about the marriage of their leader but disappointed that they were not even served sweets by the leadership.
The PTI workers, especially women, celebrated the wedding of their leader in different cities by holding get togethers, dances and distributing sweets.
Imran said in a news conference a few days back that he did not think of wedding for the last 10 years, knowing this could further dishearten his two sons, who were already upset about their parents’ separation.
Last week, Imran spent three or four days in England to share the news of his marriage plan with his sons Salman and Qasim.Some photographs of the couple posing inside the residence and outside were also shared with the media.