ISLAMABAD - The rumour mill has gone into overdrive with much speculation over Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s third marriage after his silence over a news story that said he has secretly married a woman whom he used to visit for ‘spiritual guidance’.

Interestingly, no one from the PTI came out to confirm or deny the report of the third marriage of the party leader, giving rise to the rumours.

The PTI leadership, however, in its response gave conflicting and vague explanations giving rise to more presumption about the marriage of Khan with his spiritual leader, Bushra Bibi, also known as Auntie Pinki.

On late Saturday, the son of Bushra Bibi appeared on a TV channel and denied the news of the second marriage of his mother with the PTI chief. “I have the first-hand information about my family’s internal affairs and the story about the marriage is totally false,” he said.

Khan himself avoided answering queries of journalists regarding his marriage after he addressed a public rally in Chakwal.

According to the news report, Mufti Saeed, a member of PTI core-committee, performed the nikah on the first day of the new year. Saeed, a close confidante of Khan, was also the nikah khawan when Khan publicly married Reham Khan in January 2015. At that time, Khan had also initially denied reports about his marriage.

The report also mentioned the location of the assumed marriage, saying it took place in "Sector Y of Defence Housing Authority, Lahore, at the residence of a close confidante of the bride who also happens to be a friend of a PTI leader".

Senior PTI leader and party’s chief whip in the National Assembly Dr Shireen Mazari first termed the report "ridiculous" and "pathetic", in her first tweet but later she gave a different version. “Ridiculous! when SC deprives IK's detractors of doing accusatory stories of corruption, they create stories of his "marriage"! Somewhat pathetic too!,” she took to the Twitter to respond to the reports about Khan’s new marriage.

However, Dr Mazari in a subsequent tweet reminded that Khan's marriage was no one's business. “For the record, it is Chairman PTI Imran Khan's personal business and no one else’s, when, with whom and where he decides to marry,” she tweeted.

Political secretary of the PTI chief, Aown Chaudhry, who according to the story was a participant of the simple marriage ceremony, also took to the Twitter and first denied the report. “This is irresponsible yellow journalism. I had categorically denied the veracity of this planted gossip to cheema. Totally concocted story.”

In another tweet, he gave a different version saying that he wished that Khan should have a life partner who can make his life beautiful; however, the matter has no connection with the politics.

Iftikhar Durrani, head of PTI’s Central Media Department, was reluctant to give his version on the story and only said that the PTI did not want to reply the story of Jang Group as the said media group had personal grudges with it. PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry also denied to give any version and said that he was in Lahore and was not in contact with the party leadership. “So I am not in a position to give version on the story,” he told The Nation.

Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician, first married Jemima Khan in 1995 that ended in divorce after nine years in 2004. His second marriage was with TV anchor Reham Khan, which could only survive for 10 months.

Khan had been visiting his spiritual leader Bushra Bibi for the past some time. Earlier, Ms Bushra was the wife of a bureaucrat belonging to a famous political family of Punjab and some months back, she got a divorce from her former husband.