PTI chief Imran Khan has accused former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa of portraying him as an “anti-American” when he was in power.
“Whatever happened, now as things unfold, it wasn’t the US who told Pakistan [to oust me]. It was unfortunately, from what evidence has come up, Gen Bajwa who somehow managed to tell the Americans that I was anti-American,” he said in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) that was aired on Saturday.
The former prime minister was answering the question on the kind of challenges he would be seeing in repairing the relationship with Washington against the backdrop of his narrative that the US conspired with his political opponents removed from office – a claim the Biden administration and the ruling coalition have denied.
Imran was ousted from the office of prime minister in 2022 through a no-confidence, which he claims was part of a foreign conspiracy hatched to oust his government.
But, the cricketer-turned-politician had backtracked from his accusations against the US almost eight months after he made the claims at a party gathering in Islamabad on March 27, 2022.
“And so, it [the plan to oust me] wasn’t imported from there. It was exported from here to there,” Imran added in his response.
He went on to add that international relationships should not be based on personal egos rather they should be based on the interest of the people of the country.
“The people of Pakistan, their interest is that we have [a] good relationship with the US. US being a superpower and our biggest trading partner. Pakistan exports more to the US than any other country,” he added.
When asked if the former premier still believed that the US played a role in removing him from office, Imran gave an evasive reply. He was of the view that the cipher was a “reality”, a piece of evidence he shared in the rally before his ouster.
He reiterated that it was an official meeting that initiated the conversation on both sides, between Donald Lu, the undersecretary of state for South Asia, and the-then Pakistan ambassador. The issue was brought to the last National Security Council and his cabinet.
Now, Imran believes the country should move on as it was in the interest of Pakistan to have good relations with the US and that’s what his party would intend to do.
The ex-PM also answered queries related to his relationship with the military. PTI’s cabinet had time after time claimed that their government and military were on the same page. But, in recent past Imran had spoken about his time in the office.
“Well, first let me just define what you mean by the military. Military [in Pakistan] means one man, the army chief. So, the whole policy of military vis-a-vis their dealing with the civilian government depends on the personality of one man,” he said and added that during his time the civilian government and the military had worked together for strengthening the army and fighting Covid-19.
According to Imran, the problem occurred when Gen Bajwa “favoured” his political opponents. He further blamed the former army chief for not considering corruption a big problem and working with his arch-rivals was akin to giving them immunity from their corruption cases.
“He [Gen Bajwa] had a very close relationship with Shehbaz Sharif, the current prime minister. And, for some reason, he conspired, and this regime change took place,” Imran added.
He was of the view that the elected government should have the responsibility and the authority to govern the people.
He was of the view that Pakistan must have a good relationship with Afghanistan as the country shares a 2,500-kilometer border with them.
Imran lamented that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has not paid a visit to Afghanistan yet despite “spending” almost all his time out of Pakistan.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but do we want a repeat of what happened to Pakistan from 2005 onwards to 2015, where Pakistan was going under, suffering from terrorism all along the Afghan border? I think we are not in a position to have another war on terror. And the only way is to somehow get Kabul to work with us so that we can jointly deal with this issue,” he said while responding to query on inadequate support from the interim Afghan government in fighting terrorism as claimed by the incumbent government.
Since the end of a shaky ceasefire agreed with the government in November, the TTP has staged many attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. But, many locals say they had seen the reentry of armed people in the mountainous area of the KP months before the announcement as part of the negotiations started by the former government of PTI.
The escalating violence is coupled with increased cross-border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the former exhorting the latter to not allow its soil used as a launch pad for attacks.
When asked about the spike in terrorism in Pakistan and talks with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban, he wondered what the choices for the country were when the Afghan Taliban took over the country.
“What were the choices [the] Pakistani government faced once the Taliban took over and they decided the TTP, and we’re talking about 30, [30,000] to 40,000 people, you know, the families included, once they decided to send them back to Pakistan? Should we have just lined them up and shot them, or should we have tried to work with them to resettle them?”
There was an idea that the resettlement had to be done with the concurrence of the politicians of all along the border, the FATA [tribal] region, and along with the security forces, plus, the banned TTP, he added.
“But that never happened because our government left and once our government was removed, the new government took its eye off the ball. Meanwhile, this threat grew and it’s possible that they regrouped, but then where were the Pakistani security forces? Where were intelligence agencies? Could they not see them [re]grouping? So, the problem is, how could we be held responsible for their negligence?” he asked.
