ISLAMABAD: A day after an article published in a British magazine shed light on the alleged role of former first lady Bushra Bibi in statecraft during the PTI government, the ruling PML-N and the PTI continued to engage in a war of words over the contents of the report.
While Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari believed the report to be “completely accurate and fully aligned with the facts”, PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqqas Akram asked the PPP and the PML-N to refrain from the “agenda-driven” campaign against ex-PM Imran Khan and his spouse.
He said the campaign through “concocted stories” was nothing but an effort to divert public attention from disastrous policies that had devastated the country “politically, morally, socially and economically”.
According to the PTI leader, the government had exhausted every tactic and committed every act over the past three years to remove the PTI founding chairman from the political arena, but all these measures proved counterproductive, and his popularity continued to flourish with each passing day. He predicted that the days of incumbent governments were numbered, and they were now frantically searching for escape routes.
PTI spox asks rulers to refrain from ‘agenda-driven’ campaign; Punjab information minister terms report ‘accurate’
Meanwhile, the Punjab information minister quipped that after the revelations about PTI founder Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi’s actions were now making headlines in the international media.
In a statement here on Sunday, she said that the report had exposed the “deception of the fake spiritual setup and the so-called mysticism that concealed darker intentions”.
“The man who used to threaten his opponents, saying he won’t spare them, himself believed that the manipulated information fed to his wife was some form of spirituality,” she stated.
Commenting on the publication’s report, Ms Bokhari said that for four years, the ‘coach’ and ‘spiritual guide’ misled the PTI founder. Despite claiming to champion change and end corruption, Bushra Bibi was facilitating a new form of “legitimised corruption”.
“A country and its economy cannot run on sorcery, spells, or fraudulent spiritual practices. The so-called spirituality of those who wanted to bury their opponents metaphorically has already been dead for three years,” she added.
Last week, The Economist published an article covering Mr Khan’s marriage to Bushra Bibi and her alleged role and extent of influence in his decision-making during his tenure as prime minister.
‘The mystic, the cricketer and the spy: Pakistan’s game of thrones’, written by Owen Bennett Jones and Bushra Taskeen, claimed Bushra Bibi wielded an “absolute” influence and “upset crucial friends and allies”. The article also quotes a former driver of Mr Khan, alleging that Bushra Bibi used to practice ‘black magic’.
“Accepting his wife’s claim that she could read faces, he would ask for photographs of potential candidates, which would be sent to Bushra Bibi for a decision. She also got involved in pettier matters,” the article went on to say.
The article also shed light on her alleged ties with the intelligence community.
“According to the rumours, the officer would, for example, give one of Bushra Bibi’s pirs advance notice about which politician was about to be arrested. Bushra Bibi would then tell Khan that she had received a revelation about the future. When the event she predicted came to pass, Khan would be amazed at his wife’s perspicacity and conclude she did indeed have a direct line to God,” it claimed.
Amjad Mahmood in Lahore also contributed to this report
Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2025
