US must engage with Taliban or face chaos, warns PM Khan

Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned against sanctioning the new Afghan setup saying it will only lead to chaos and a huge humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. 

The Premier was giving an interview to the foreign media outlet, Middle East Eye (MEE) and said that US has to “pull itself together” and deliver an aid package to Afghanistan or face the collapse of a country which would become a haven for Islamic State militants.

“Unless America takes the lead, we are worried that there will be chaos in Afghanistan and we will be most affected by that,” he added.

“It’s a really critical time and the US has to pull itself together because people in the US is in a state of shock,” he said in the interview.

The Premier further added, “They were imagining some sort of democracy, nation-building or liberated women, and suddenly they find the Taliban are back”.

While speaking on the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, khan said that isolating and sanctioning Taliban will create huge humanitarian crisis so the United States has to pull it together and take the lead otherwise Pakistan is worried that chaos in Afghanistan will affect us most.

Khan said, “The world must engage with Afghanistan because if it pushes it away, within the Taliban movement there are hardliners, and it could easily go back to the Taliban of 2000 and that would be a disaster”.

Asked whether Pakistan would allow the US to launch strikes targeting ISIS in Afghanistan from Pakistan, Imran Khan once again made it clear that Pakistan does not need to be part of a conflict again. He said Pakistan has paid a heavy price both human and material in the war on terrorism.

Indian-administered Kashmir an open prison

Cricketer-turned-politician accused his counterpart Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, of copying Israel’s playbook by allowing settlers to acquire land in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Khan termed the Indian-administered Kashmir as an ‘open prison’. 

“India had also benefited from a deepening strategic and military relationship with Israel, forged by Modi’s visit to the country in July 2017, and by then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's return visit to India the following year - after decades of diplomatic estrangement,” he added.

Khan further added that the relationship has included the joint development by Israel Aerospace Industries and Indian contractors of the Barak-8 aerial defence system for use by both countries’ militaries, which was described by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh last month as a “game-changer”.

“Whatever the UN general assembly says, they have complete confidence in the veto the US has in the Security Council. So they get away with anything. And I feel that India feels [it has immunity] because they are being used as a bulwark against China,” said Khan.

Former cricketer stressed that both countries have fought three wars since independence in 1947. 

Prime Minister Imran Khan has called on the world to refrain from pushing away the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, adding that it would send the country back a couple of decades.

Women’s rights rolled back

The Premier stressed that the only obstacle to entering government was members of what he called the previous regime, which he accused of corruption.

One of the first things Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman, did after the fall of Kabul was to assure Afghan women that our sisters and our men have the same rights.

“If you force them [Taliban], I can imagine that human nature is such that they will push back and that would be counterproductive,” he added.

India controls world cricket 

When questioned about England Cricket Board's (ECB) decision to withdraw their 5-day Pakistan tour, Imran Khan said, "England let itself down".

The prime minister said that he had seen the evolution of Pakistan-England cricket ties over the years. 

"I think that there is still this feeling in England that that they do a great favour to play countries like Pakistan," adding that one of the reasons is money (Financial status).

"Money is a big player now, for the players, as well as for the cricket boards,” he stressed.

“The money lies in India, so basically it controls world cricket now,” he further stated. 

Prime Minister further added that no one would dare do that to India because they know that the sums involved and India can produce much more money.