Islamabad: Witchcraft, theft, corruption: It’s mud-slinging time in Pakistan ahead of a no-confidence vote on PM Imran Khan, on April 4. The motion was tabled on Monday.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his third wife, Bushra Bibi, also known as Bushra Riaz, are no strangers to controversies surrounding their personal lives.
But there’s a new twist this time: charges of corruption and witchcraft.
The Pakistan National Assembly convenes today for a crucial session, during which a no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan will be introduced.
And there’s a new accusation that Bushra Bibi is attempting to save Imran’s government through her witchcraft.
Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Leader of the Opposition and frontrunner for Prime Minister, has stated that tonnes of meat are being burned for witchcraft in Imran Khan’s Banigala home.
Shahbaz’s remark was directed at Bushra Bibi, who calls herself a ‘peer’ and has been accused of performing witchcraft on numerous occasions.
Shehbaz Sharif remarked in an interview with a private TV channel that the poor are starving and children crave milk, but that lots of chickens are being burned in Bani Gala for witchcraft.
Who is Bushra Bibi?
In 2018, Khan married Bushra Bibi in a low-key ceremony in Lahore. Khan took office as Prime Minister six months after they married.
Bushra Bibi is a Pakistani faith healer who is said to possess unusual supernatural abilities. In Pakistan, she is known as Pinky ‘pirni’ (holy woman) or Pinki Bibi.
Khan is said to have begun seeking “spiritual counsel” from the holy woman. According to a report in Vanity Fair, Imran Khan sought spiritual counsel from Bushra Bibi before becoming Prime Minister, and he used to pay her two vats full of cooked meat as a fee. According to the report, the meat was for Bushra Bibi’s two djinns (Jinns).
Bushra Bibi had dreamed years ago that Imran Khan would one day become Pakistan’s Prime Minister provided he married the ‘right woman.’ She allegedly sought to marry Khan to her sister and her daughter before concluding that she was the ‘right woman’ for him.
Unlike Khan’s previous two ex-wives, Jemima Goldsmith and Reham Khan, Bushra Bibi has been a recluse who rarely makes public appearances.
Bushra Bibi, 41, is reportedly a descendent of Hindu monarch Jaisal, the founder of Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer region, according to media reports. Bushra hails from the Wattoo clan, which is well-known in Pakistan’s southern Punjab.
The Wattoo are a notable Rajput tribe in the Sutlej Valley, and they are closely related to the Bhati Rajputs. Baba Fariduddin is reported to have converted its members to Islam. According to sources, the conversion took place in the 14th century under the reign of Firoz Shah Tughlaq. The Wattoo tribe of Bahawalpur claims to be the 8th generation of Raja Jaisal’s dynasty, the founders of Jaisalmer.
Bushra bibi has five children from a previous marriage. Her family members are followers of the ‘Baba Farid’ shrine.