The Hina Rabbani Khar Rumor That Both Sides Denied

One of the more sordid media episodes of September 2012 began not in Islamabad but in Dhaka, in a Bangladeshi tabloid called Blitz, which published a lurid claim that Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, was having an affair with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari — the son of President Asif Ali Zardari and the late Benazir Bhutto.

The story was picked up by parts of the Indian press and ricocheted across South Asia. It had everything tabloids love: Khar, 35, was Pakistan's youngest-ever foreign minister and a constant presence in fashion-magazine coverage of her handbags and wardrobe; Bilawal, 24, was the PPP's chairman-in-waiting and political heir.

Both denied it, unequivocally. Khar called the claims reprehensible and baseless and said she would consider legal action; her husband at the time, Feroze Gulzar, stood by her. Bilawal dismissed the reports as false and malicious. The PPP suggested the story was planted to embarrass the government, and no evidence for the claim ever surfaced.

What the episode actually demonstrated was the vulnerability of public figures — particularly young women in politics — to rumor-as-news in the age of the internet news cycle. The story traveled the world in days; the denials barely traveled at all. A decade later, it survives mainly as a footnote about how fast a baseless claim could move before anyone asked for proof.

This article reports on the 2012 rumor and its denials; it makes no claim about the private lives of the people involved.