Dubai: Speaking to Gulf News in an exclusive interview on phone enroute from Tank to Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chief Imran Khan spoke of his anti-drone Peace March and what purpose it served.
“We were turned back not from the checkpost itself but a little earlier by the army. They advised us to head back as it had gotten so late we would have been stuck inside Waziristan after sunset. There were a 100,000 people with us and the army advised us to turn back. I could not take the responsibility since we had our PTI workers, women and foreigners with us. No way would I have taken a risk and endangered them after sunset.”
Gulf News: Wasn’t it a risk to take them there in the first place even in the day time, especially the foreigners, after the TTP Punjab issues threats of dire consequences?
Imran Khan: There was a risk and I was worried not so much from the Taliban but for Malulana Fazlur Rahman’s party (JUI-F) instigating violence by calling it a conspiracy of the Jews and Christians. Their propaganda that it was a Jewish concerted plan worried me that the foreigners should not come to any harm. I therefore decided to turn back since it would have turned dark upon the advise of the army.
Q: Your Peace March has been called a publicity stunt, rather a political stunt? Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, TTP has come out with a strong statement when you have been advocating negotiations and political settlement with them? What are your comments on that?
A: I have never been pro-Taliban, I have been wrongly credited that I am sympathetic to the Taliban militants. I have always been anti-military operations and anti-drones and pro-political dialogue. Because I always believe military operations create extremism. Knowing the nature of the people in the tribal area, I thought its insane and a senseless policy which is not in the interests of Pakistan or the tribal people. I have always advocated political dialogue which has been wrongly interpreted as my being pro Taliban. How are we going to get rid of this? It has created more extremism and militancy. Today we have more militancy than ever in the history of Pakistan. This was a peace march, pro-peace, pro-political dialogue, anti-drone and anti-military operations.
Q: Does TTP feel threatened because you are reaching out to the people from the tribal belt?
A: The TTP is not one group, it is a nexus of various groups, the Pakistani Taliban constitute criminals, Pashtun nationalists who are fighting for solidarity with other Pashtuns across the border, those who are fighting for anti-Americanism, there are those who are doing it for reasons of religious ideology but that’s a small percentage, then there is the Punjabi Taliban — the jihadist parties in Punjab, so you can't say the TTP policy is one, there is no one group. Different extremist elements call themselves the Taliban. There are elements in the TTP that are threatened. If there is peace, they won't have strength, they won't have the power they have now.
Q: What purpose did the Peace March achieve?
A: First of all, it internationalised the issue, It is now being debated about not just in Pakistan but all over the world, never before has it received so much international attention. Second, the jinx within Pakistan has been broken. People were scared of holding rallies even in D.I. Khan forget about Tank, now they have no option, we got there and held a rally it was to be seen to be believed. It was one of the biggest receptions ever in Tank or the area. So we succeeded in inetrnationalising the issue and nationalising the issue. In addition, by reaching out to the tribal people, they now feel for the first time that there is somebody out there that cares, we are the ones who reached out to them. How will peace come about? Peace will eventually come when we have our own people on our side, people from the tribal areas, when they are one with us will peace come.
Q: Is this a turning point? Do you feel people of Pakistan will now sit up and say no to the government that protests drone strikes and on the other hand allow them to happen?
A: Drone strikes take place with the complicity of the government. The Pakistan government has allowed the US to do this. When Admiral Mike Mullen was questioned about the drone strikes in the Senate he categorically told then that we are doing it because the Pakistan government has allowed us. The government is two faced, it lies to us.
