Pakistan’s former prime minister has repeatedly claimed that Washington conspired in his fall from grace – and energy.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, has signalled his readiness to fix ties with america after repeatedly accusing Washington of conspiring to take away him from energy in April.
“So far as I’m involved, it’s over, it’s behind me. The Pakistan I need to lead should have good relationships with everybody, particularly america,” he mentioned in an interview with the Monetary Occasions revealed on Saturday.
Whereas he expressed a willingness to work with the US if he's re-elected and mentioned he desires a “dignified” relationship with the US, the 70-year-old additionally criticised Pakistan’s relationship with the US.
“Our relationship with the US has been as of a master-servant relationship, or a master-slave relationship, and we’ve been used like a employed gun. However for that I blame my very own governments greater than the US,” he mentioned.
Commenting on Khan’s remarks, a US State Division spokesperson advised Al Jazeera through electronic mail that america values its “long-standing cooperation with Pakistan and has all the time seen a affluent and democratic Pakistan as essential” to US pursuits.
“We is not going to let propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation get in the best way of any bilateral relationship, together with our valued bilateral partnership with Pakistan,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Khan was eliminated as prime minister in April following a vote of no confidence in parliament, which he has since blamed on a US-led overseas conspiracy that additionally concerned Pakistan’s highly effective navy institution and his political rivals.
He has by no means offered any proof to again his allegations. Islamabad and Washington have denied the fees.
‘The gloves are off’
On November 3, Khan was shot and wounded within the leg in Wazirabad metropolis, within the japanese province of Punjab, whereas main a protest march on the capital to demand early elections. The present Nationwide Meeting’s time period ends in October 2023.
The lengthy march, which started on October 28 from Lahore, resumed after the taking pictures, and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) social gathering is on its approach to Islamabad. Whereas he's unable to bodily attend, he addresses his supporters each night.
Khan advised the Monetary Occasions within the interview, shortly after he was shot, that early elections had been the one approach to restore political stability and warned of rising financial upheaval in the event that they aren’t held quickly.
His reputation has usually surged due to his anti-Washington rhetoric, however Khan’s strolling again the US conspiracy principle was inevitable, mentioned analyst Mosharraf Zaidi from the Tabadlab think-tank in Islamabad.
It was not the primary time that Khan used a populist trope “he is aware of to be unfaithful to excite his base”, Zaidi mentioned.
“The rationale that is coming to the fore now could be that the US angle in his conspiracy principle allowed him to assault the navy management with out really attacking it,” Zaidi advised Al Jazeera.
“Now that the gloves between him and Basic Bajwa [Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa] are coming off, the utility of sustaining the US veneer is considerably diminished.”
Whereas the US has traditionally been considered one of Pakistan’s shut allies, the final decade has seen a cooling off regardless of Washington being Islamabad’s key safety and financial associate.
Pakistan has obtained greater than $30bn dollars in support over the previous 20 years alone as one of many US’s key companions within the so-called “battle on terror” in Afghanistan.
A senior PTI official denied that Khan was anti-US, saying as an alternative that he was merely questioning Washington’s coverage.
“Imran Khan has by no means been an anti-American politician, his narrative has by no means been anti-America,” mentioned Asad Umar.
“His politics is that the US coverage is rarely in keeping with American beliefs itself, nor within the curiosity of our area, nor within the curiosity of America itself. There's a very clear distinction in his criticism which must be drawn to take his statements in context,” Umar advised Al Jazeera.
In a video handle on Monday, Khan alleged that a “propaganda cell which feeds to these journalists that are of their [government’s] pockets. Every time I give an interview, they're advised to particularly decide specific components from it, and share it with out context.”
Khan mentioned this was occurring as a result of the objective of these within the alleged cell was to indicate that he “says one thing as soon as, and now he's saying one thing else”.
Standing by his narrative, Khan added: “We wish good relations with everyone. Be it China. Be it Russia. Be it America. We don’t need to be slaves of anyone.”
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hit out at Khan in a publish on Twitter on Monday night, saying his predecessor’s interview with the Monetary Occasions was a “reminder of vicious position he performed to hurt Pakistan’s exterior relations.”
“Nation is shocked by his deceit & treachery inflicting irreparable harm on Pakistan,” Sharif alleged.
Niazi's interview with FT through which he rebutted his overseas conspiracy principle is a reminder of vicious position he performed to hurt Pakistan's exterior relations whereas pursuing his personal petty politics. Nation is shocked by his deceit & treachery inflicting irreparable harm on Pakistan.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) November 14, 2022
Zaidi, the analyst, believes Khan “will proceed to play one recreation along with his followers and one other with publications such because the FT [Financial Times] as a result of his main viewers is his populism-vulnerable supporter.”
He added: “As soon as he has energy … he can all the time stroll again the nonsensical and patently unfaithful master-slave sort narratives.”
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