One of the upsides of Imran Khan’s ascension to the post of Prime Minister is that we are now treated to regular news of his third wife and the present First Lady of Pakistan, Bushra Bibi, who is, contrary to the photographic evidence, not attending a fancy dress party
The narrative of Imran Khan as a pious man in search of redemption and spirituality is one of those PR spins that has been force-fed to us to counter his otherwise deeply salacious reputation. Bushra Bibi (i.e. High Priestess, i.e. The Lady of the Veil) is the latest stop on that quest. In these last two years the papers would sibilantly report that Khan was seeking her counsel and advice whenever things were particularly tricky for him, or something didn’t go his way, or something treacherous (dharna? divorce? dinner?) was on his mind. One imagines they saw a lot of each other.
It makes sense that a man who believes that the universe exists to fulfill his destiny would seek out people who constantly confirm it for him
News and pictures of her appeared in the ether earlier this year. She emerged, a full formed, totally cocooned marital prospect-to-be. She had previously been betrothed to a customs official for thirty years and together they had five kids. Luckily the pair parted “amicably” just in time for Bibi to marry Imran Khan before the election. The ex-husband (one perpetually morose-looking Mr. Maneka) was interviewed at the time and was quick to stress that Khan had nothing to do with his own marital split. At all. They just grew apart and Khan and she grew together, united in their spirituality. Mr. Maneka was careful to stress that he had never met a more “pious” woman than his ex-wife.
We don’t know a lot more about our latest First Lady Of Pakistan (FLOP). We know that she is a woman Khan has come to rely on for some time, allegedly because he believes she has special powers that come from prayers, djinns, or (if he’s lucky) both. It makes sense that a man who believes that the universe exists to fulfill his destiny would seek out people who confirm it for him, even (especially) if those confirmations come with outlandish catches and caveats. (Must bathe in black daal. Must not come down from mountain for three months. Must not look camera in the eye.) The popular TV show Game of Thrones has a similar character to Our Lady of Bushra, one who whispers in the ears of ambitious men, and she too wears a red veil on occasion. One imagines Khan consulted Bibi before marrying Reham Khan, ex-wife number 2, whose quotes are nowadays carried by British newspapers with the shady subtitle “says onetime BBC Weather Girl”. Perhaps Bushra Bibi also had a measure of advice to offer about the election and its results. Maybe she predicted the seats that it would take for him to win. Maybe she saw the face of his enemies in the fire.
Melisandre, the Red Priestess, alongside Stannis Baratheon from GoT
We cannot know, because we do not know her. She has elected to remain in purdah (the Khan camp is keen to disseminate that this is entirely her choice) though it strikes me as a conveniently self-effacing way to pander to a vocal faction of people whose sense of propriety is predicated on what a woman wears. That sense of reverence is bolstered by how the press is referring to her. She is not Bushra Maneka Khan. She is Bibi Bushra (or sometimes Pinki Pir), precious priestess to all the land, mother to the nation. She flits silently from shrine to shrine, beneficently stopping at orphanages to pay for medical bills, massaging the spiritual soul of the country back to health. Bibi Bushra the Kind. (For some reason, as author Moni Mohsin has pointed out this week on Twitter, we never heard of Bibi Jemima or Bibi Reham.)
I don’t mean to sound mean. For all I know our FLOP is a kind and well meaning woman who really does possess extraterrestrial powers of divination and a direct line to beings that can tell her what to do and when. But I am suspicious. Why? Because according to sources as varied as members of the PTI party apparatus to Reham Khan, it was Bushra who decided which date the elections would be held. (She could do this, one assumes, because she was foretold of an auspicious day from the Powers That Be, whoever they really are...) The suggestion that someone not elected to the ECP could control something as big as when to hold an election implies, by reason, that she may have a great deal of influence over how other things play out as well.
In a sense mysticism in politics is a foregone conclusion. We are the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. We believe in djinns, angels, badroohs and buraqs. Is it so odd that the wife of our PM is rumoured to be hiding her powers behind a red veil? Can’t that actually help him in terms of shoring up popular opinion? Indeed, is it any different from the prevalence of pirs in other areas of government? (Three words: Shah Mehmood Qureshi.) By all accounts he is treated with near-religious reverence there, as are other families who are attached to shrines all over the country. Is this at all odd?
Perhaps not. The dissonance between religious beliefs and rational policy is not exclusive to our country, not by a long shot. Most Americans believe in Angels. Dutch children believe that six or eight black men accompany Santa on Christmas (which is problematic for other reasons). The Japanese and Thai royals are thought of as living deities. And don’t even get me started on what Indians believe.
The belief in magic powers all of life.
Still, I do look forward to learning more about Pinki Pir because I have a suspicion that she will prove to be far more important to the unfolding Game of Thrones than we yet know.
