Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi had a nikah that was against Sharia

Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s personal life is always under the scanner in the country. The latest in the series of controversies surrounding Khan's marriages is the validity of his third marriage, with Bushra Bibi. 

The veil over Imran Khan's third marriage was lifted on Wednesday when Mufti Mohammad Saeed, the cleric who performed the nikah of Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi on January 1, 2018, testified before the Islamabad court that Bushra Bibi's nikah was performed during her iddat period.

The mufti appeared in court in a petition filed against PTI Chief Imran Khan, seeking legal action against him for marrying Bushra during her iddat period.

What is the iddat period? 

Iddat is a 130-day mourning period observed by a Muslim woman after the death of her husband or after a divorce.

During this period, a woman cannot face any other man, except her son; and she is asked to remain at her home for 4 months. 

The Islamic Sharia states that a woman cannot enter another marriage during her iddat period. 

Bushra Bibi’s iddat period began in November 2017 and it had to end in February 2018. But Khan, as per records, married her on January 1, 2018 in Lahore. 

Is Imran’s marriage un-Islamic? 

If we go by Sharia, then yes, Imran Khan’s nikah with Bushra Bibi stands null as he married her during her iddat period.

Why Khan married Bushra in a hurry

Mufti Saeed told the Islamabad court that Khan married Bushra Bibi in a hurry in January 2018 because there was a prediction that if he married her before the elections, he would be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan, Dawn reported.

Mufti Saeed also told the court that when he went to the Defence Society in Lahore at Imran Khan’s request, he met relatives of Bushra Bibi and Imran Khan.

He said that a woman who claimed to be Bushra’s sister had assured him that all the requirements for the marriage under Sharia were complete. He then solemnised the nikah, in January 2018.

Another call from Imran Khan

But as per Mufti Saeed, Imran Khan called the cleric once again in February 2018, requesting him to solemnise the nikah again as the first one was against the principles of Sharia.

"I was told that the Nikas was solemnised during Bushra Bibi’s iddat as she had been divorced in November 2017," Mufti Saeed told the court.

The cleric told the court that Imran Khan had entered into a "deliberate and un-Islamic union" following the prediction that Khan would become the Prime Minister of Pakistan if he married Bushra on New Year’s Day in 2018.

Read more: The story of Ayla Malik and Imran Khan 

Also read: Sex, lies and leaked audio tapes: Can Imran Khan survive this assassination attempt?