Who is Bushra Bibi/Maneka?
Bushra Maneka is the wife of former Cricketer and 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. Bushra, also known as Bushra Bibi hails from Pakpattan District of Punjab, located 250 km south-west of Lahore. The town is home to the shrine of Hazrat Baba Farid Ganj Shakar, a sufi saint of whom she and Khan are both spiritual followers.
Bushra Bibi is a renowned sufi scholar, faith healer and mentor. She is famous as Pinki Bibi or Pinki Pir at Pakpattan’s Ziarat-e Dargah Hazrat Baba Farid Ganj Shakar. Bushra bibi has also helped her now husband Imran Khan on spiritual matters and this brought them closer that finally led to their marriage.
Early Life and First Marriage of Bushra Bibi
Bushra Maneka was born as Bushra Riaz Wattoo on 16th August, 1968 in Dipalpur, Okara district in Punjab, Pakistan.She belongs to a conservative and influential family of the Wattoo Clan. Bushra Bibi hails from Pakpattan district in Punjab which is the home to Pakistan’s Chisti Order of Sufism and the shrine Hazrat Baba Farid Ganj Shakar, a renowned Punjabi poet and sufi scholar.
Bushra Bibi is also a spiritual follower of Baba Farid. She got married in 1987 to Khawar Maneka who is the son of Ghulam Mohammad Maneka who held the office of federal minister in Benazir Bhutto’s tenure. Khawar is a senior customs official in the customs department of the country while his brother Ahmad Raza Maneka is also a Pakistani politician and a member of the National Assembly. He is associated with PML-N.
Bushra Bibi has three daughters and two sons from her marriage with Maneka, two of her three daughters are married. The eldest one, Mehru Maneka is daughter-in-law of Pakistani politician Mian Atta Mohammad who served the provincial assembly of the Punjab. Both of her sons namely Musa and Ibrahim after their graduation from Aitchison College, Lahore in 2013 went abroad to pursue their higher education.
On August 6,2018 it was reported that Mehru Maneka had joined Khan’s PTI following a meeting with him.
Bushra Bibi’s Marriage to Imran Khan:
According to reports, Bushra Bibi and Prime Minister Imran Khan met for the first time in 2015. According to the leading English newspaper Dawn, Imran Khan became a frequent visitor at the shrine of Baba Farid Ganj Shakkar following his inclination towards sufism in the recent decades. There he would pay homage to the great 12th century Sufi Saint. At that time, Bushra Bibi was a revered scholar, spiritual mentor and faith healer and regarded as a leader of pilgrims to Baba Farid’s shine. Imran would often visit the shrine in the evening accompanied by his private guards. Bushra Bibi is also called Pir and this is what actually brought them closer. During his visits, Imran would often consult her on spiritual matters whenever he found himself in a “difficult situation”.
“My interest in Sufism started 30 years ago. It changed my life. Sufism is an order with many levels, but I have never met anyone who is as high as my wife. My interest in her began with that.”
— Imran Khan in an interview, regarding his marriage to Bushra Bibi.
The Manekas were local influentials who shared a spiritual relationship with Khan and used to host him. Imran Khan once mentioned that he was introduced to Bushra Bibi by the latter’s sister Maryam Riaz Wattoo, who is a PTI member. He mentioned that he would visit Bushra Bibi’s house for counseling and advice on other religious matters. Sources mention that just before the 2015 by-election in Lodhran for NA-154 constituency Imran interacted with Bushra Bibi and was quite pleased when his party’s candidate Jehangir Tareen won the election as predicted by her. He became a more keen follower and started visiting regularly.
As the visits became more frequent there personal understanding also grew. Meanwhile, the differences between Bushra Bibi and her husband began to grow and the couple ultimately ended their marriage in 2017. Many people close to Bushra Bibi blame Imran for their divorce and hold the opinion that their conflict was not as severe to end their thirty years of marriage.
Reports of Imran’s marriage to Bushra Bibi started circulating in mid-2016 to early 2018 but Khan and the members of the Maneka family condemned all such reports, in fact PTI filed a complaint against news channels who broadcasted any such news. Later, the PTI central secretariat on January 7,2018 issued a statement that Imran had proposed to Bushra Bibi but she had not accepted the proposal till that time. On February 18, 2018 it was officially confirmed that the two had tied the knot.
The couple visited Mecca for pilgrimage a few months after their marriage.
According to Imran, he is extremely impressed with his wife and they are “happily married”.
Bushra Bibi as First Lady
Bushra Bibi is the first veil-wearing first lady of Pakistan, bushra bibi said that her decision to wear veil is her personal choice in line with the religious obligation however, she is not imposing it on anyone else. Known to be an introvert Bushra Bibi avoids social gatherings and public glimpses and glares and Imran respects her for her choices.
She leads a private life at Imran’s farmhouse Bani Gala, Islamabad.
