Observer Report
Islamabad
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said his government had reached the conclusion that India was backing the militant Islamic State (IS) group to cause turmoil in Pakistan.
In a conversation with a group of digital media publishers and broadcasters, the premier suggested that the IS extremist group had carried out last Sunday’s killing of Shia Hazara coal miners in Balochistan’s Mach area at the behest of India.
While answering a question about the Hazara murders, he said the genesis of militant sectarianism in Balochistan lay in the Afghan jihad of the 1980s.
After foreign powers left Afghanistan, the militant groups remaining in the region “caused immense losses to Pakistan”, particularly by targeting the Shia Hazara community, he noted.
“Now this [attack] that has been claimed by ISIS … the opinion of all of us [and] our security agencies is that India is backing ISIS,” the premier said, using the alternative name for IS. He added that it was the “stated aim” of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to spread unrest in Pakistan.
Imran Khan ruled out any possibility of talks with India, saying the Narendra Modi-led right wing Hindu nationalist government will cause tremendous damage to its own country more than any enemy.
“Time will tell that the Modi government will cause damage to the country more than its enemy,” the premier said.
He was responding to the question related to Pakistan’s foreign policy and any possibility of dialogue with the government in New Delhi. “No talks possible with India until they restore the autonomous status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” he asserted.
The premier also said that the only goal of Modi government is to “spread chaos in Pakistan”.
PM Imran said Pakistan after a long time has established “very respectful” relations with the United States. “We don’t have relations with the US like in the past when it would ask us to do more.”
Besides, premier maintained that Pakistan enjoyed cordial relations with others countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan. “We don’t have adversarial relations with any country except India which is trying to destabilise Pakistan,” the prime minister said.
Imran Khan said that those making anti-military statements and attacking the national institutions would not be spared adding that opposition is targeting military leadership
and pressurizing institutions to protect their corruption and loot.
He said that they are telling the army to overthrow an elected democratic government. In the past, the military leadership was criticized during the martial laws, but now, in the democratic era, why are they targeting the military.
Imran said that as soon as our government was formed, the opposition said that the country was ruined because they knew that they have destroyed the country s economy and institutions.
Imran Khan said that they think that they will blackmail me. I am aware of the problems of the common man regarding inflation. Those who do not perform will be replaced. Referring to the new CCPO Lahore, he said that let’s see how he performs.
Prime Minister said that Khawaja Asif was working for a foreign company, while serving as defence minister and foreign minister of Pakistan. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and other Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders, including Ahsan Iqbal and Khawaja Asif, had residences abroad. They possessed the Iqamas.
He said that the purpose of the Iqama was to protect the stolen money, as because of the Iqamas, the repatriation of the looted wealth becomes difficult.
Imran said he had taken a difficult path of not giving the corrupt any amnesty. “My life will be easier if I give NRO to the gang of corrupts, he added.
The prime minister said that former president Musharraf was better than the leaders of these two parties, but he was wrong in giving them the NRO.
The country was destroyed not by the corruption of the lower class but by the corruption of the government and rulers. PDM is a gang of thieves, looters and robbers, this is a decisive battle.
Imran Khan said that bringing about change was a continuous struggle that one can retire from only at death. The premier said ‘change’ was not a switch that could be turned on at one’s whim. The prime minister said that out of 220 million people in Pakistan only 3,000 pay 70 per cent taxes.
“Half of the taxes we [the government] collect go in debt settlement of loans taken by previous governments,” the PM reiterated.
Imran added that the country was at a decisive point. “Our exports were growing, the construction industry was thriving,” he said, adding that the service industry was still in crisis all over the world at the moment.
https://twitter.com/PakObserverNews/status/1348561442451156992
“When you cut expenses, you bring down the demand,” he said. The prime minister further maintained that the only goal of Narendra Modi- led Indian government was to spread chaos in Pakistan.
Imran Khan said that Balochistan was “never given importance by the past governments because the entire province’s vote bank is equal to that of Faisalabad”.
