Only a fool doesn't discuss everything with wife: Imran

She is my soulmate and I would not have survived without her, says the premier

KARACHI:

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that he discusses everything with his wife Bushra Bibi as she has “great wisdom”, saying that only a "fool wouldn't do so”.

“Only a fool doesn’t talk about everything with his wife. She has great wisdom. I discuss everything with her, also problems I face in government, dealing with complex situations,” he replied to a question regarding his marriage during a recent interview with German magazine Der Spiegel.

“She is my soulmate. She is my companion. I would not have survived without her," he maintained.

Bushra Bibi has been in the media spotlight ever since she tied the knot with Imran Khan in 2018.

Her attire for PM Imran’s inauguration ceremony was the talk of the town when she chose to wear a veil.

She was the most searched person in Pakistan on Google, according to Google Trends Year in Search 2018.

In April last year, PM Imran had said that his marriage with Bushra Bibi was a blessing and that he would remain by his wife's side till his "last breath", refuting rumours at that time that he had been facing marital problems.

During the interview, he also shared his similarities with US President Donald Trump as "he plays by his own rules" unlike average politicians.

"We had to be very unorthodox, and in some ways, Donald Trump does too," the premier said when asked about similarities between him and the US president.

When asked about his fondness of the US president, PM Imran replied that as a politician who started his own party and then built it up into the biggest party in Pakistan over 22 years, he also had to do a lot of out-of-the-box-thinking just like Trump.

"We were the first to rely on social media and the first to attract the youth to our rallies."

Answering another question, he said that Pakistan does not have a favourite in Afghanistan. "Our only interest is that the future government in Kabul does not allow India to operate from there against Pakistan," he added.

Replying to a question regarding freedom of speech in the country, the premier said that Pakistan had more freedom than almost any Western country, saying that he was using the word freedom very carefully as he has spent almost two decades of his life in England where the laws on slander are very strong.

"There was a defamation case between me and an English cricket star that I won, because defamation laws are very strong there. But such slander laws don't exist in Pakistan. I have been wrongly slandered as prime minister, here and gone to court, but even as prime minister, I haven't been able to get justice," he added.

Asked if Pakistan would follow United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in establishing relations with Israel, PM Imran said that every country has its own foreign policy priorities and it has to think its own people, and it's their decision.

"As for Pakistan, the founder of the nation, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, a brilliant man, spoke in the 1940s about the Palestinian situation as a huge violation of human rights. Pakistan still takes this view. Unless there's a just settlement, we cannot recognise Israel."