Imran Khan’s Ultimate Infatuation: ‘Pinky

Peerni’ or ‘Gahil Heerni’?

“My interest in her lies in the fact
that I have not seen or met anyone
with her level of spirituality. I only
sent the proposal for marriage
after she divorced her husband.”
So asserts the great man. Well,
that sounds credible enough but
believe me a man needs a more
worldly reason to marry a beautiful
woman, or even an ordinary one
for that matter. When the two
started meeting at Bushra’s house,
she would often tell Imran Khan to
recite verses from the Quran. She also gave him a ring to wear for good fortune. He kept losing the bye-
elections but never lost hope. The good fortune was just round the corner though! From a faith healer
to a faithful spouse, Pinky Peerni instead landed in Khan’s lap. After all, it enjoyed the blessings Baba
Farid’s (RA). It is food for thought, though. While I don’t qualify to lead a nation, at times I feel putting
my own life in order. More color, I guess? Pakpattan is about ten hours ride by train. But I surely have no
pretensions of making the journey by foot. I may not be looking for spiritual enlightenment yet?

That being said, Imran Khan’s decision to marry a woman of his choice is clearly his own and nobody
else’s business. However, it does reflect one’s ability to stay clear of public controversy; in fact, it
reflects a measure of prudence. And it matters for Imran Khan’s supporters and for Pakistan. While I
maintain that cricket is unlike any other sport, leading a team of nine on the field (excluding Miandad, of
course) is relatively slightly more difficult than the task of unifying nine million voters for a common
cause. And in Pakistan it is often the public sentiment that drives the momentum, let alone political
insightfulness. It is weird that in a nation full of perfectly eligible women (for Khan Saheb’s intellectual
taste), he should have found a reason to engage the attentions of a married woman. The divorce,
apparently, wasn’t engineered but it beats me when Bushra’s ex-husband claims the reason for their
divorce to be the non-consummation of some of their spiritual obligations. In other words, a man who is
(happily) married to a woman for thirty years considers extricating himself from the marriage because
his spiritual needs are being compromised. If that be true, the only option left for Mr. Maneka is now to
lead a life of seclusion. Why would he ever need another woman in his quest for spiritual fulfilment? But
the bomb will explode the day he decides to remarry. And the cat would be let out of the bag as
furtively as it has been cast aside for the time being. And that will be the end of Imran Khan’s golden
rule. God forbid, though I must say!

The other thing that baffles me is Imran’s own perception of spirituality which, incidentally, he finds
replete in a woman twenty years his younger. This is not to be confused with the ‘woman behind the
man’ syndrome. Self-belief is not anybody’s endowment other than Allah’s. Imran Khan’s self-belief has
not only been monumental, it has been exemplary. Rest assured, no peerni can ever lay any claims to it.
And, I doubt, any peer for that matter. This man built a cancer hospital when everyone said it couldn’t
be done, and he repeated it in Peshawar; he founded a political party out of scratch and endured failure
for seventeen years until finally winning the elections in 2013; he demanded a fair investigation into
election results and ended up dethroning Nawaz Sharif; he defended his own financial integrity in the
court of law and came out triumphant; he bore the brunt of the cheapest of allegations by women of
dubious character, yet he got away without a blemish; in short, for Pakistan’s political cause, he has
achieved what no one else could have ever dreamt of doing. Yet, Imran Khan seems to seek inner
strength and resolve from an individual far less experienced in many worldly ways. Spiritual
enlightenment exists in a vacuum without a practical context. If this world wouldn’t be the dar-ul-amal,
spirituality would lack a purpose. Take it or leave it, the Cupid’s Arrow turned out to be a double-
headed one.