Pakistan’s relation to US that of master and client: Imran Khan
7 Dec 2012 1:52 AM GMT
Describing his country's relations with the US as that of a client and a master, Pakistan's cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan on Thursday said there was a need to transform the ties to that of mutual friendship.
‘We want to be friends with the US but the current client-master relationship must end,’ Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tahreek e-Insaf party said here.
‘Pushtun nationalists in tribal areas don't consider the current military operations as war against terror, but regards it as war against Islam. The army is considered collaborator or mercenary forces of the US,’ said Khan after delivering a public lecture organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies, a Singapore think tank.
The 140,000 Pakistani soldiers stuck in tribal areas should be disengaged and the military operation should be stopped to take away the narrative of jehad from this war, he said.
Khan argued that no Pakistani was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US and the unrest in Pakistan only started after Islamabad started supporting US war in Afghanistan.
The same mujahedeen, who were described as freedom fighter during the war against erstwhile Soviet Union, were now branded as terrorists, he pointed out.
Responding to a question from one of the 400 academics and business community leaders at the lecture, Khan said the removal of Jehad narrative by stopping the US-supported military action in the tribal area, would neutralise the mujahedeen and bring peace to Pakistan.
‘We want to be friends with the US but the current client-master relationship must end,’ Khan, chairman of Pakistan Tahreek e-Insaf party said here.
‘Pushtun nationalists in tribal areas don't consider the current military operations as war against terror, but regards it as war against Islam. The army is considered collaborator or mercenary forces of the US,’ said Khan after delivering a public lecture organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies, a Singapore think tank.
The 140,000 Pakistani soldiers stuck in tribal areas should be disengaged and the military operation should be stopped to take away the narrative of jehad from this war, he said.
Khan argued that no Pakistani was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US and the unrest in Pakistan only started after Islamabad started supporting US war in Afghanistan.
The same mujahedeen, who were described as freedom fighter during the war against erstwhile Soviet Union, were now branded as terrorists, he pointed out.
Responding to a question from one of the 400 academics and business community leaders at the lecture, Khan said the removal of Jehad narrative by stopping the US-supported military action in the tribal area, would neutralise the mujahedeen and bring peace to Pakistan.
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