Breaking his silence over reports of his "marriage" to his spiritual guru Bushra Maneka, Pakistan's Opposition leader blamed ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and owner of a private media house for the "vicious, gutter media campaign" against him in recent days.
In a series of tweets, the 65-year-old former cricket captain said that he was only concerned about "his children and the very conservative family of Bushra begum."
In another tweet, he told "NS & MSR" that their vicious campaign has only strengthened his resolve to fight them.
Attacking Sharif, Imran said: "I have known the Sharifs for 40 years and I know all their sordid personal lives, but I would never stoop to the level of exposing these sordid details."
"For 3 days I have been wondering have I looted a bank; or money laundered bns in nation's wealth; or ordered a model-town-like killing spree; or revealed state secrets to India? I have done none of these but discovered I have committed a bigger crime: wanting to get married," he said.
"All I ask of my well wishers and supporters is that they pray I find personal happiness which, except for a few years, I have been deprived of," Khan added.
Khan had first tied the knot with Jemima Goldsmith in 1995 that ended in divorce after nine years in 2004. His second marriage was with Reham Khan, then a TV anchor, which lasted barely 10 months.
Khan's angry tweets came hours after Nawaz, while speaking to the media outside an accountability court in Islamabad, said that it was "sad that Khan has gone into hiding" [since the marriage rumours] and left the alleged wife's children to give explanations.
"If he [Khan] has done something like this [gotten married], he should come out and admit it," Sharif said.
Rumours of Khan's alleged third marriage to his "faith healer" had circulated in the media after a report surfaced in The News on Saturday.
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