mentioned. British tabloids consistently ran stories about the marriage. However, Imran Khan diplomatically kept dodging a straight answer to the question.
Although there were no news hungry private TV channels when Imran Khan had married for the first time, he had got colossal publicity, more in the international media than the local. This time, the TV channels depicted it as a monumental event.
There are certain dissimilarities in the two weddings. Benazir Bhutto was the most popular leader of the time and a potential prime minister after the next elections that were held a year after the marriage. On the other hand, Asif Zardari was a nonentity in the political arena and nowhere near her political stature as well as the political standing of her father.
After the marriage, Zardari shared unparalleled political clout. When Benazir Bhutto was prime minister for two times, he remained a very powerful man, at times behind-the-scenes. After her assassination, he directly secured the power and was the unchallenged ruler for five years.
The marriage of Benazir Bhutto and Zardari was arranged by their elders. Before their wedding, she had met him once in London at a family gathering.
In the case of Thursday’s marriage, Imran Khan has a great political say as against his new spouse who is nowhere near the influence he enjoys. It is not an arranged marriage. Rather, as per reports his four sisters stayed away from the event.
Imran Khan cherished to marry in the ‘new Pakistan’ he dreamed meaning that he would wed only when the Nawaz Sharif government would be ousted paving the way for the fresh elections that would throw him up as the next prime minister. But he had to live with the ‘old Pakistan’ as far as his marriage is concerned.
It may be a mere coincidence that the children of both Imran Khan and Reham Khan are in Britain, studying there. His sons are living with their mother while her children are putting up with their father.
While continuing his sit-in, Imran Khan had shown a lot of haste to meet the success so that he could quickly marry. He failed to get his prime objective – exit of the present government - and decided not to wait more and married.The marriages of prominent politicians and their children have mostly been kept as private affairs.