TRUE to his reputation of mincing no words when it comes to highlighting national concerns and interests, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an interview with Dr Eric Li, the Director of the Advisory Committee of the China Institute at Fudan University, gave voice to the overall thinking of the majority of Pakistani people when he spoke on the nature of Pakistan-US relations, propaganda against China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), time-tested ties with Beijing and situation in neighbouring Afghanistan.
He made people proud by declaring in unequivocal terms that his first priority was Pakistan’s 220 million people and he was determined to uphold their interests at all costs.
What the Prime Minister said about the US policy towards Pakistan holds good even in the prevailing situation as Washington is clearly dropping signals of abandoning the country once again after a dramatic turn in its Afghan project.
Imran Khan rightly pointed out that the United States has always used Pakistan for its purposes, explaining whenever the US needed us, they established relations and Pakistan became a frontline state, and then abandoned it and slapped sanctions when its purposes were served.
The entire history of Pak-US relations is dotted with instances when Washington came closer to Islamabad when it needed its services and left the country in lurch when its services were no longer required to advance regional or global agenda.
The United States ‘steadfastly’ pursued the same approach on all occasions leaving Pakistan at the mercy of circumstances.
The US mercilessly used Pakistani leverage to pursue its agenda in Afghanistan but once the Soviet forces withdrew, it left Pakistan alone to bear the burden of refugees and socio-economic consequences.
It once again sought cooperation of Pakistan when its entire military might miserably failed to dislodge the then Taliban Government in Afghanistan and fought the so-called war against terror using shoulders of Pakistan.
Both civilian and military leaders have all along been emphasizing upon the United States that there was no military solution to the problem of Afghanistan but Washington ignored the advice and tried the military option in vain.
There was no clarity of goals in Afghanistan and some of the statements and actions of the US sent a message to the world that it was all about grabbing the natural resources of the country and using its strategic location to keep a check on China, Russian, Central Asia, Pakistan and Iran.
The United States is misjudging the situation and developments in Afghanistan by making no differentiation between the Taliban government and millions of Afghans who are suffering due to the callous attitude of the outside world towards them.
It is using the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan to advance the same interests, which it failed to achieve during 20 years of occupation of Afghanistan.
It is also regrettable that the United States completely ignored huge sacrifices made by Pakistan both in terms of men and material during the long war against terrorism.
It was also because of the hard work done by Pakistan that the United States found face saving in Afghanistan.
It is a matter of concern for people of Pakistan that a country which claims to be the strategic ally leaves no opportunity of pressurizing it through multilateral institutions as well as acts of destabilization.
The intentions of the US and some other Western countries can be judged by the fact that they are opposing even the CPEC and development of Gwadar port forgetting that these offer huge economic benefits to the people of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister has, therefore, rightly dismissed their suspicions saying Pakistan sees CPEC and Gwadar as a great opportunity for geo-economics and the initiative is not exclusive to China and Pakistan and other countries are also welcome to invest in CPEC projects.
Imran Khan also spoke clearly on Sino-Pakistan relations pointing out that the two countries stood with each other through thick and thin for 70 years.
China is also being maligned by some Western circles on the issue of human rights, especially the plight of Uighurs Muslims.
In this backdrop, the Prime Minister told the interviewer that he directed Pakistan’s Ambassador to China to have firsthand information on the issue and his report exposed the propaganda in this regard as the report noted ‘unprecedented’ focus on development in Xinjiang.
