Islamabad: In an emphatic speech in parliament, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that Pakistan could be “partners with the United States in peace but never in conflict” again.
Elaborating Pakistan’s foreign policy, Khan said: “We do not want any kind of strategic depth in Afghanistan. We do not want any favourites. Afghans are our brothers.” He said that “whoever Afghan people choose, we are with them.”
US war on terror
Criticising the past policies, Khan said that as a Pakistani, he had never felt more “insulted” than the time when Pakistan decided to join the United States war on terror in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. “We decided to become a front line state for America’s war on terror”, he said, but “what did we have to do with the war?”
Khan regretted that Pakistan had chosen to support America’s war on terror and “kept doing what they (US) wanted” including capturing “our own people”, sending them to Guantanamo Bay as revealed by former President Pervez Musharraf in his memoir in which he also described how the US threatened to bomb Pakistan if his government did not cooperate in the war on terror.
“Does any country get involved in another’s war and lose 70,000 lives of its own people?” and suffer $150 billion in economic losses due to US-led war, asked Khan during his hard-hitting speech in the National Assembly. He recalled that the United States pressurised Pakistan “to send our troops to the tribal areas” bordering Afghanistan after Tora Bora incident “in pursuit of a few hundred Al Qaeda” supporters. “And what was the result of that?” Half of the population of tribal areas was displaced with billions of dollars of damage done and villages destroyed in drone attacks.
Darkest period
It was the “darkest period of our history” when Pakistan could not differentiate between an ally and an enemy. “Does a friendly country carry out attacks and drone strikes in your country?” he inquired. “A terrorist is in London for 30 years. Will they (UK) give us permission to attack him?” he questioned. “If they will not give us permission then why did we?” he asked.
On the May 2011 Abbottabad raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Khan said despite Pakistan fighting America’s war on terror, “our ally did not trust us enough to carry out the attack. Were they (US) our friend or enemy?” It was a humiliating incident for Pakistanis, he admitted.
Khan clarified that Pakistan would “absolutely not” allow the CIA to use bases on its soil for cross-border counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan. Justifying the decision, the premier said: “We made huge sacrifices in the war against terror. But has the US acknowledged our role as their frontline allies? Instead, they called us a hypocrite and blamed us. They even tried to shift the blame of the defeat in Afghanistan on us.”
Khan announced a clear-cut decision: “We can be partners in peace with America, but not partners in conflict”. Pakistan has learned an important lesson in the last 20 years and it is that “Pakistan would never compromise its sovereignty out of fear,” Khan said as parliamentarians thumped their desks, chanting, “Long live Imran Khan”.
Afghanistan and US withdrawal
Pakistani premier said that the US has concluded that there was no military solution in Afghanistan, which has been Pakistan’s policy from day one. The United States abruptly announced the exit date and then asked Pakistan to bring the Taliban to talks, said Khan, adding “we have no leverage over them (Taliban) other than that we suggest that conflict and prolonged civil war is not a solution.” Khan expressed fears that if there was a civil war, it would be a disaster for Afghanistan, which would also have an effect on Pakistan.
