IN the chaos of protests that turned Pakistan's capital into a battleground recently, a new figurehead has emerged: Bushra Bibi, the wife of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Until now, she has appeared only rarely in official photos, shielded from view during court appearances by large white sheets and always wearing a face veil.
But since being released from jail two months ago, where her husband and the country's wildly popular opposition leader still languishes, Khan's third wife has stepped up in his defence and roused his fanatic followers.
"It was assumed that there was an understanding that she is a non-political person, hence she will not be a threat," said analyst Asma Faiz, an associate professor of political science at Lahore University of Management Sciences.
"However, the events of the last few days have shown a different side of Bushra Bibi."
Islamabad was brought to a standstill on Monday and Tuesday when 10,000 Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters flooded the capital, defying a ban by authorities, which rights groups have accused of a violent crackdown.
Nearly 1,000 people were arrested and five members of the security forces killed.
In the days leading up to the protest, Bibi made her first direct appeal to PTI supporters, pleading with them to defend Khan.
She made an unexpected appearance on top of a truck in a convoy of vehicles in the midst of the clashes between protesters and security forces.
"You will have to promise that till the time Khan comes here, you will not leave," she cried to the crowds.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi was clear about where he apportioned blame for the chaos.
"Bushra Bibi is the only one responsible," he said.
A faith healer, Bibi and Khan became close when he turned to her for spiritual guidance in his career. The pair married in 2018, the same year Khan was elected prime minister.
She was arrested and detained in the days before February's national election over corruption and for breaking Islamic law by marrying Khan too soon after her divorce.
"Her relationship to Khan gives her authenticity in the eyes of protesters, who at the end of the day are marching for Khan," said Michael Kugelman, a director at the Wilson Center.
But her role has the potential to cause division in a party that has struggled to maintain a tight top leadership with Khan sidelined in jail.
In her social media video a week ago, she attacked Saudi Arabia, a key partner of Islamabad, leaving the party scrambling to backtrack.
It was also Bibi who encouraged the protesters to march to the centre of the capital, despite the government saying a senior PTI leader had promised to keep to the periphery of the city.
Khan, in comments made to his team from jail and posted on social media, played down her influence.
She has "no connection with politics", he said ahead of the protest.
"As she is my wife, she only transmits my messages," he said before the demonstrations.
In Pakistan, several women have been suddenly propelled into politics: former prime minister Benazir Bhutto during the coup against her father, and Maryam Nawaz Sharif, niece of current Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, when her father was imprisoned and then exiled.
Many have praised Bibi's "courage" under the photos of her haranguing the crowd from the top of a container.
But the new involvement of Bibi is a double-edged sword for Khan, whose sister Aleema also plays a growing role in PTI.
Pitched as the outsider facing the generational politics of the Bhutto and Sharif families, the hero of Pakistan's new era treads a careful line.
*The writer is from AFP
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times