In a country where weddings are huge undertakings, the elite usually mark the occasion with elaborate, multiday affairs during which hordes of guests must be catered for.

But during a national emergency over terrorism and in the face of the deep disapproval of some family members, Pakistan’s most famous former sports star turned politician remarried on Thursday in a low-key ceremony attended by a handful of friends.

Despite repeated rumours of Imran Khan’s nuptials there had been no official confirmation he would marry former BBC journalist Reham Khan until a few pictures of the pared-down ceremony flashed across the nation’s TV screens.

For Pakistan’s news channels it was the equivalent of a starting pistol fired on a sudden royal wedding, but with no footage to satisfy the audience.

They did their best, overlaying with fireworks the few available stills of the couple while traditional wedding music played over video of impromptu celebrations thrown by Khan’s supporters around the country.

Earlier in the day one studio discussion speculated on the outfit Reham, a former BBC weather and regional news presenter, might wear. In the end she confounded the fashion pundits with a white embroidered traditional lehengha. Pictures from the ceremony at Imran Khan’s hilltop pile outside Islamabad showed a stiff and unsmiling politician wearing a cream, silk sherwani.

The need for restraint comes as the country continues to recover from the December Taliban massacre of more than 130 schoolboys in Peshawar, the capital of the province controlled by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party Khan founded and leads. The attack, which has been described as “Pakistan’s 9/11”, has put the country on a war footing with militant groups. The government has taken dramatic steps, including the scrapping of a death penalty moratorium and amending the constitution to allow military courts to try civilians.

“This is not the time to celebrate anything,” one PTI official said of the wedding. A spokeswoman said there would be no other events to mark the wedding apart from distributing food to poor children.

Absent from the tiny ceremony were key members of the family, who have expressed their displeasure at the union. “We are basically boycotting it,” said a relative who did not wish to be named. “The family only hoped that he married a good person and we don’t believe she is. He is an icon and he deserves much better.”

The relative complained that little was known about the bride, a divorced mother of three who has never been seen in public with Khan except when she interviewed him for her Pakistani talkshow last year. That conversation took place inside the converted shipping container Khan used as his base to lead months-long anti-government protests in Islamabad.

At the time of the demonstrations against alleged electoral fraud Khan told a delighted crowd he wanted to usher in a “New Pakistan” in order to get married.

In recent days Reham Khan has endured social media abuse after pictures and videos from her career as a BBC presenter circulated online. Her on-screen appearances in skirts and moderately revealing outfits were never going to go down well in some quarters of the conservative country.

Some analysts speculated that the marriage might damage a politician who made dramatic advances in the last general election by winning support from affluent urbanites and more conservative-minded Pashtun voters in the western tribal belt. His previous marriage to British socialite Jemima Khan, the daughter of the financier James Goldsmith, was used against him by his political enemies on the religious right who still occasionally dwell on her Jewish background.

Khan has played down his past as a playboy cricketer and adopted positions that have led some analysts to bracket him among Islamist politicians. Last year a leading columnist dubbed him “Taliban Khan” and said he was guilty of making extremism mainstream.

Omar Quraishi, a journalist on the Express Tribune newspaper, said any controversy over his new bride would swiftly subside. “Society in Pakistan is getting really conservative and there is a real double standard when it comes to judging women,” Quraishi said. “But once it is all official, everyone will say, OK, congratulations and just let them get on with it.”

Earlier in the week Khan flew to London to inform his two teenage sons about the marriage. On his return he told a press conference “marriage is not a crime” but that his children were his “first priority”.

Whether or not his sons gave him their blessing, Khan’s relatives in Pakistan remain angry.

“No one in the family is happy with this soap opera,” said the relative who did not want to be named. “His hardcore supporters in the party are also disappointed because there is a myth about him that he left his family in order to save Pakistan.

“They didn’t care about his playboy past because they said at least he is honest and sacrificed his family for his country. And now he is starting a new one.”