Imran Khan and Reham Khan

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan announced on Tuesday that he was becoming a married man, telling a press conference at his 200-acre Islamabad estate that “marriage is not a crime.”

The 62-year-old, who arrived back in Pakistan on Tuesday after spending time in the UK, had told reporters on Monday night as he boarded his flight from Heathrow that he was planning to “share the good news with the nation” on his return. It was not clear whether the couple had married already, as some reports suggested, or were waiting to celebrate their nuptials in Pakistan.

Khan’s bride is former BBC weather presenter Reham Khan, 41, a divorced mother-of-three, who moved back to her native Pakistan in 2013 and began working for television channels there.

And on Tuesday night Khan’s decision to marry was the subject of furious debate on Pakistani television, where callers to chat shows rang in to voice their opinions, over clips of his first wedding, to Jemima Goldsmith. “It’s the talk of the town,” said one commentator in Islamabad.

Their wish to marry had been announced by Khan in August, when, during his political party’s four-month sit in to campaign against President Nawaz Sharif, he proclaimed that he was waiting for the resignation of the government before he wed.

“I want to create a new Pakistan not only for you, but also for me – because once a new Pakistan becomes a reality, I will marry,” he said, to thunderous applause from his supporters.

His ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith, whom he had married in a traditional Islamic ceremony in Paris in 1995, announced that she, as a result, was returning to her maiden name. They have two sons together, and divorced in 2004.

“My ex-husband, Imran, recently announced that he intended to get remarried soon, which made me think it’s probably time to change my name back to Goldsmith,” she said.

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