Islamabad<\/p>\n
Expressing concern over India\u2019s antics in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that the region is a hotspot. Imran said South Asia could \u201cflare up at any time,\u201d urging the United States to treat it in an \u201cevenhanded\u201d manner.<\/p>\n
In an interview with foreign publisher, PM Imran reflected that the US is under the impression that India could limit China\u2019s influence in the region. but it \u201cis a completely flawed premise\u201d.
\n\u201cIndia is a threat to its neighbors; to China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and to us,\u201d said the premier. \u201cIt has the most extremist racist government in the subcontinent. It is a fascist state inspired by the Nazis in the 1920s and \u201830s.\u201d
\nImran said Islamabad expected evenhanded treatment from the US with respect to India \u201cespecially with the dispute in Kashmir\u201d.
\nExplaining the ruling Bharatya Janata Party\u2019s anti-Islam manifesto, the premier said: \u201cRead the writings of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the intellectual forerunner of PM Narendra Modi\u2019s party. They openly admired Hitler. The Nazis wanted to get rid of the Jews. The RSS wanted to rid India of the Muslims.\u201d
\nResponding to a question about the US elections, PM Imran noted that Joe Biden was in front in the opinion polls but \u201cDonald Trump is very unpredictable because he\u2019s not like normal politicians.\u201d
\n\u201cHe plays by his own rules,\u201d said the premier with a hint of admiration that did not go unnoticed by his interviewer. The prime minister reminisced that \u201cas a politician who started his own party and then built it up into the biggest party in Pakistan over 22 years, I also had to do a lot of out-of-the-box-thinking\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the first to rely on social media and the first to attract the youth to our rallies,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe had to be very unorthodox, and in some ways, Donald Trump does that too.\u201d
\nExplaining Pakistan\u2019s role in the Afghan peace deal, PM Imran dismissed the perception of Islamabad\u2019s close ties with the Taliban.
\n\u201cWith 2.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan, we have a certain amount of leverage, which we used to the utmost,\u201d he explained. \u201cI am very pleased that we succeeded.\u201d
\nThe premier observed that Pakistan had nothing to do with the 9\/11 terror attacks and reiterated that the country should not have gotten involved in the war in Afghanistan.
\n\u201cI opposed it from day one. The US put pressure on us, and the military dictator Pervez Musharraf succumbed to that pressure.\u201d PM Imran reminded the interviewer that Osama bin Laden was a hero in the 1980s. \u201cHe supported the Mujahideen against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and he was backed by both the CIA and Pakistan.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was Pakistan\u2019s right to recognize the Taliban, but Pakistan had no control over the Taliban. When Pakistan asked the Taliban to hand over Osama Bin Laden to the Americans, they refused.\u201d
\n\u201cNo one can predict which way things will go in Afghanistan right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I can say is that after Afghanistan, the country that wants peace most is Pakistan. We have lost 70,000 people in this conflict, and our tribal areas adjacent to the Afghan border have been devastated in the last 15 years.\u201d
\n\u201cHalf of the people in these areas have become internally displaced, about 1.5 million of them [have become] victims of the conflict between the Pakistani Taliban and the army.\u201d
\nImran said his government, from day one, has been fostering dialogue.
\nStressing his push for peace, PM Imran said he offered mediation in the Yemen conflict as soon as he came into power. \u201cSuch a colossal human rights disaster is going on there.\u201d
\nThe premier said he spoke with Iran and Saudi Arabi\u2019s Mohammad bin Salman. \u201cBut you can\u00b4t force anybody to agree on peace talks if they don\u2019t want to.\u201d PM Imran noted that a Saudi-Iran war \u201cwould be a disaster\u201d and \u201cdevastating for countries all over the world, especially the poor, and the price of oil would shoot up\u201d.
\nDiscussing Middle East\u2019s growing ties with Israel, PM Imran reiterated Pakistan\u2019s position. \u201cEvery country has its own foreign policy priorities. They have to think about their own people, and it\u2019s their decision.\u201d \u201cAs for Pakistan, the founder of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a brilliant man, spoke in the 1940s about the Palestinian situation as a huge violation of human rights. Pakistan still takes this view,\u201d he asserted. \u201cUnless there\u2019s a just settlement, we cannot recognize Israel.\u201d
\nThe premier has never shied from sharing his admiration of the Chinese governance model. He told foreign publisher it was remarkable that China lifted 700 million people out of poverty within a short period of 40 years. \u201cThis is the model I want to emulate in Pakistan,\u201d he explained. \u201cDespite not having electoral politics, they are good at bringing the best people to the top in their country. It\u2019s a system based on meritocracy.\u201d PM Imran admired \u201chow the Communist Party sort of sifts through all the talent and brings it to the top.\u201d
\n\u201cFurthermore, in the past seven years, China has put 450 ministerial level officials in jail on corruption charges,\u201d he continued. \u201cCountries aren\u2019t poor because of a lack of resources. It\u2019s because of corruption among the leadership.\u201d \u201cAs we know from the Panama Papers, the same is true for Pakistani politicians. Millions of dollars went into properties in the most expensive areas in London, siphoned off from this country.\u201d The premier said he was undeterred by the opposition uniting against him, terming the movement a blackmail to get of corruption cases. \u201cBut there\u2019s no way I will ever relent,\u201d he stressed. \u201cLook, we are facing the biggest trade gap in our history.\u201d PM Imran noted that Pakistan\u2019s \u201cimports were $60 billion, but exports were only $20 billion\u201d. \u201cThe rupee is falling and there\u2019s inflation because we import fuel. Everything is getting more and more expensive, even electricity,\u201d he admitted.
\n\u201cWe have to raise our revenues, so we have to increase our tax base,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe\u2019re going through these painful reforms and all these guys from the opposition get together.\u201d \u201cThey are worried that once we stabilize things, they will all end up in jail because of huge corruption cases.\u201d
\nAs leader of a country with one of the lowest Covid-19 tallies, PM Imran explained his government decided to impose smart lockdowns keeping in view that almost half of the population lived on daily and weekly wages. \u201cWe only restricted areas if we found that there was an outbreak, and we did not stop our supply lines. We did not stop the agriculture sector and quickly reopened the construction sector, because that\u2019s what employs the most people in the urban areas.\u201d \u201cThat saved us,\u201d he reflected. \u201cIndia instead restricted people to their homes in poor areas\u00a0 a complete lockdown. They have a lot of poverty now; same in Iran.\u201d
\nImran said around 180,000 to 200,000 people are getting tested every week as the national coordination team looks at multiple statistics with a clear composite picture of the epidemic. \u201cFrom peak numbers in June, we saw a steady decline in cases, positivity and deaths across the country until late August. Now, we\u2019re hoping to survive the second wave.\u201d \u201cOnly a fool doesn\u2019t talk about everything with his wife,\u201d said the premier. \u201cShe has great wisdom.\u201d \u201cI discuss everything with her, also problems I face in government, dealing with complex situations,\u201d he continued. \u201cShe is my soulmate. She is my companion. I would not have survived without her.\u201d When asked about the new law prohibiting media to report on the military, the prime minister said there would be \u201canother way of dealing with security forces\u00a0 not through the media but through the government\u201d.
\n\u201cI will speak to the army chief if I think there\u2019s something wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are always human rights violations in military operations and sometimes we speak about it when it happens. But this should not be done in public.\u201d \u201cWhen soldiers are risking their lives, you cannot demoralize them in public,\u201d he explained.
\nThe premier, once again, insisted that Pakistan enjoyed \u201cmore freedom of speech than almost any Western country\u201d. \u201cAnd I use the word freedom very carefully, after having spent almost two decades of my life in England, where they have very strong laws on slander,\u201d he stressed.
\n\u201cThere was a defamation case between me and an English cricket star that I won, because defamation laws are very strong there.\u201d \u201cBut such slander laws don\u2019t exist in Pakistan,\u201d he lamented. \u201cI have been wrongly slandered as prime minister, here and gone to court, but even as prime minister, I haven\u2019t been able to get justice.\u201d
\nWhen the interviewer pointed out that the new law only protected the security apparatus, the premier insisted that \u201cas long as criticism is based on truth and facts, it will be accepted.\u201d \u201cEvery day, our security forces lose people in battle. Every country protects its institutions, not when they do something wrong, but when they\u2019re being attacked,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Expressing concern over India\u2019s antics in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that the region is a hotspot. Imran said South Asia could \u201cflare up at any time,\u201d urging the United States to treat it in an \u201cevenhanded\u201d manner. In an interview with foreign publisher, PM Imran reflected that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17490,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17489\/revisions\/17490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}