Barrrister Gohar says Economist article 'defamatory', warns of lawsuit

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, Barrister Gohar Khan, has announced that the party has the right to take legal action against the UK magazine for the publication of an article that he termed “mischievous and false.”

Responding to the UK magazine’s article while speaking to ARY News, the PTI Chairman said that the purpose of the article is the character assassination of the PTI Founding Chairman, Imran Khan, and his wife, Bushra Bibi.

Barrister Gohar said that Bushra Bibi is in jail only because she is the wife of Imran Khan. He said that before this, she was accused of tying the knot during the Iddat period, while she was cleared of the allegations with respect.

He said that the latest report is also a fictitious story, adding that Bushra Bibi will not be broken by using such tactics.

The PTI Chairman said that she is now in jail, and he condemned the article, adding that such articles are sponsored, and time will prove it.

He said that all the allegations are false and baseless.

Earlier in the day, In a saga that rivals the intrigue of medieval royal courts, Pakistan’s political landscape during PTI-rule was dominated by larger-than-life figures, a spiritual mystic, a former cricket legend turned prime minister, as described in a feature published in The Economist’s 1843 magazine.

The central characters in what the magazine dubs “Pakistan’s game of thrones” are: The Mystic: Bushra Bibi, the enigmatic wife of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Known for her spiritual influence and veiled presence, she is portrayed as a modern-day oracle wielding significant behind-the-scenes power within Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

According to the report, written by veteran journalist Owen Bennett-Jones, multiple sources from Khan’s inner circle described Bushra Bibi’s role as far more than ceremonial.

Her spiritual counsel was so dominant that, in the words of one insider quoted in the magazine, “nothing major happened without her approval — not even the prime minister’s plane taking off.”

“Many of the details of Bushra Bibi’s occult-sounding activities come from members of the Khan household who lost their positions after she arrived. But the picture they paint is detailed. Safeer, Khan’s driver, said that soon after she moved into Khan’s house he was told to buy 1.25kg of beef, which was passed around her husband’s head three times while she chanted incantations. The flesh, according to Safeer, was then thrown on the roof to be eaten by the birds. Next red chillies were circled around the former cricketer’s head. (They were set alight so as to ward off bad spirits that had been left by his second wife.),” reads the article.

The article states that sensitive intelligence was allegedly passed to Bushra Bibi through intermediaries, who sometimes included serving security officials.

She would then present this information to Imran Khan as divinely inspired insight or “spiritual intuition,” thereby strengthening her authority.

The Economist also notes that Bushra Bibi, a long-time faith healer and spiritual guide, reportedly told Khan before their 2018 marriage that their union was necessary for him to ascend to the premiership — a prophecy that subsequently came true when he was elected later that year.

Staff and close aides are quoted describing an environment in which appointments, daily schedules, and even political strategy were routinely filtered through Bushra Bibi’s guidance.

Several senior PTI figures reportedly grew frustrated at what they saw as governance by mysticism rather than merit.

The magazine portrays her influence as one of the defining — and most controversial — features of Imran Khan’s time in office, with one source telling The Economist: “She became the final word on almost everything.”

PTI insists that stories of her spell-casting are unsubstantiated gossip spread by disgruntled ex-employees.

“These are people who have been disgraced and belong to the other political camp. They have no credibility at all,” said Raoof Hassan, a PTI spokesman.