Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Tuesday termed President Asif Ali Zardari's recent US visit insult of the whole nation as despite tremendous sacrifices rendered by Pakistan against terrorism, US President Barack Obama did not meet him on the margins of the Nato Summit in Chicago.
Speaking at a press conference, he said that the US was not ready to recognise the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in the so-called war against terrorism. Lamenting the US attitude towards Pakistan in recent Nato summit, in which Obama skipped a meeting with President, he said that Pakistan lost over 40000 people including 6000 soldiers, but "they were not ready to talk to us."
Khan said that he was not against the army but the thing, which all Pakistanis want that the military should stay away from politics. He also came down hard on former Pakistan ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani for his dubious role against Pakistan army. "This is our army and we must protect it but it is very unfortunate that Hussain Haqqani, who wrote a book against it and got US $100000 from an American think-tank," he added.
About avoiding a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Gilani in the honour of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he said he did not go to the dinner because it would have been like accepting Gilani as prime minister. "After his conviction, we do not accept him as prime minister...accepting his [Gilani] invitation to go the dinner will be like accepting him as prime minister. Had I gone to attend the dinner I would have gone for Erdogan because he is well respected leader of Islamic world," he added.
Imarn accused the government of fighting the terror war just to earn dollars. "The US did not respect resolutions passed by our parliament and now they did not bother to meet our president. This is not out war so let get out of it," he maintained. He held former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf responsible for throwing Pakistan into the war against terror. "It is just because of Musharraf who opted to become an ally in this war on the pretext Pakistan will be left alone in the world," he said.
The PTI cheif said that Pakistan should immediately disassociate itself from the US war on terror and initiate a dialogue with the tribal people. There should be immediate cease-fire in tribal areas because this war has completely destroyed our tribal culture, he added.
About long march against Gilani for not implementing the SC verdict, he said morally Gilani is no more a prime minister but according to law he is still the prime minister. The moment his appeal will be rejected by the court, he added, his party will decide future line of action if he kept on defying the apex court orders. Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Ali Kuli Khan Khattak (Retd) joined PTI. Speaking on the occasion, the former general said that he had always been a great admirer of Imran Khan.
"His voice is the voice of my heart, and this is the reason I wanted to become a tiny part of his party and strengthen his hands to take the country out of the present crisis," he added. Khattak stepped down in protest when on October 1998 he was superseded by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif by appointing much junior General Pervez Musharraf as chief of army staff.
Comments
Comments are closed.