ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan married Bushra Bibi during the latter’s Iddat period, the cleric who performed the Nikah testified before a court in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Mufti Mohammad Saeed made the testimony before Senior Civil Judge Nasrum Minallah during the hearing of a petition seeking legal action against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman for marrying his present wife while she was reportedly on Iddat.

Iddat is a 130-day wai­ting period, or a period of abstinence, after the dissolution of a woman’s marriage through di­­vorce, death, or any other form of separation from her husband, during which the woman remains unmarried.

Mr Khan married Bushra, his third wife, in Feb 2018.

His friend Zulfi Bu­­k­h­ari and Aon Chaud­h­­ry, a former PTI leader, had said the Nikah was solemnised by Mufti Saeed in Lahore. The two acted as witnesses to the Nikah.

In his statement before the court, Mufti Saeed said he had close relations with Mr Khan and was a part of the PTI’s core committee.

According to the cleric, Imran Khan asked him, on Jan 1, 2018, to solemnise his Nikah with Bushra Bibi in Lahore.

Mr Khan took him to a house in Defence Society and there he (Mufti Saeed) met the relatives of both Bushra Bibi and the PTI chief.

“I obtained, from both sides, sundry details before performing the Nikah. I also asked her about her first marriage and divorce,” Mufti Saeed said.

He further stated that a woman accompanying Bushra Bibi introduced herself as her sister and assured him that all requirements for the marriage under Shariah were complete. He then solemnised the Nikah in January.

However, Mufti Saeed recalled, the former premier contacted him again the following month, Feb 2018, with a request to perform the Nikah with Bushra Bibi afresh as the first one was against the principles of Shariah.

“I was told that the Nikah was solemnised during Bushra Bibi’s Iddat as she had been divorced in Nov 2017.

“But there was a ‘prediction’ that the PTI chairman will become prime minister if he marries Bushra on Jan 1, 2018,” the cleric said in his testimony.

Mufti Saeed alleged Mr Khan and Bushra deliberately entered into an “illegal and un-Islamic” union for the sake of ‘a mere prediction’ as the former was convinced that he would ascent to the Prime Minister’s office if he got married on New Year’s Day in 2018.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2023