After Benazir’s marriage, Imran’s gets global fame

ISLAMABAD: After twenty-eight years, the wedding of a leading Pakistani politician has earned massively high-watt publicity and has been billed as an international event, typical of marriages of showbiz personalities.
In 1987, the most popular political star of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, tied the nuptial knot with Asif Ali Zardari and attracted global projection. It was a unique marriage in every sense. The affair was hugely celebrated by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders and workers. It was his and her first marriage.
Now, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s wedding, though termed a ‘low-key affair’ by his party leaders, provoked an unprecedented media hype and TV channels went crazy in covering each and every minute detail of the marriage. Even features of the make-up man and wedding dress were given.
Imran Khan’s first marriage with affluent British lady Jemima Goldsmith in 1996 was also a great happening. Sometime before his wedding, he had written more than one bylined article in an English newspaper, highlighting ‘ghairat’ (self-respect) of Pakistanis, expressing utter contempt for ‘brown sahib’ (Pakistanis who imitate Western lifestyle and are influenced by it, usually British).
He focused on nationalism. That was the year when he had launched his political party.Jemima was obviously Britisher while Reham Khan is the British national of Pakistani origin and came back to the country of her birth after the breakup of her first marriage.
It appears that Imran Khan consciously maintained suspense about his second wedding with the broadcast journalist for quite some time. Speculation and hearsay that finally turned out to be absolutely true had it for months that he has decided to marry the anchorperson. Social media kept breaking the news about different aspects of this marriage before it actually consummated. Even the names of Mufti Saeed and the witnesses were 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.