KARACHI, March 9: The chief of Tehrik-i-Insaf, Imran Khan, has asked the government not to vote for any Security Council resolution that would allow aggression against Iraq.
Pakistan’s stand must be based on principles and it must act as per the aspirations of the people who are opposed to the American policies vis-a-vis Iraq, said Mr Khan while addressing the Head and Neck Oncology Society of Pakistan on Pakistan in the evolving international crises here on Saturday.
The PTI chief was highly critical of the government for “not protecting the fundamental rights of the people and giving in too much to the Americans” and opined that the “leadership is so petrified of the Americans that they are not standing up for their rights.”
He said that Islamabad did not support terrorism in any form, yet Pakistanis were being treated as suspects after the 9/11 incident and that they were being subjected to questionable treatment in the United States. The sad part is, he said, that the government here had not raised its voice over it to protect the rights of its citizen.
“What is the use of living in a country which does not protect your fundamental rights,” said the disgusted Khan while referring, what he described as “the government’s failure in restraining the Americans from uncalled for treatment being meted out to Pakistanis.”
He claimed that before the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, Pakistanis went there and fought alongside the Taliban. They had nothing to do with Al Qaeda or anything else, he stressed and deplored that after the U-turn by the Islamabad, those captured by the Northern Alliance were subjected to inhuman treatment. Though the Pakistanis were prisoners of war, they were not provided their due rights, he revealed and added that some of them were even slaughtered but Islamabad remained unmoved.
When the Nazis at Nuremburg had the right to defend themselves, why didn’t these prisoners have the same right? he asked while pointing out that the prisoners had being condemned and confined to high security US military bases.
Imran Khan was also critical of the growing role of the FBI in Pakistan’s domestic jurisdiction and said the people were disappointed with the kind of dubious stand the government had taken with regard to the American intelligence agency. Terming the stand ‘a bluff’ he said he was aware of FBI’s role in Dr Aamir Aziz case.
The PTI chief advised the government not to obey the Americans’ orders. “Pakistani agencies do whatever the Americans ask them to do. They get away with it because the people are poor and nobody speaks for them,” he regretted.
He also referred to the massive anti-war rallies in Europe and claimed that they disproved the clash of civilization theory. “I believe that the US, the only super power, is controlled by the Zionists and President Bush is surrounded by the fundamentalists,” he maintained.
He acknowledged that doctors of Pakistani origin had been experiencing an adverse fallout of the 9/11 incident because of the restrictive American policies.
Imran Khan spoke of the problems his cancer hospital encountered initially and said that work on a similar hospital in Karachi would commence soon.
Ahmad Rashid, an expert on Afghanistan, in his keynote address called upon the military to give up its role in the formulation of domestic and foreign policies owing to which Pakistan, over the years, had faced great difficulties.
He spoke of the ‘missed opportunities, uncertainty and innumerable contradictions’ due to the military’s role in taking decisions.
He pointed out with regret that after 9/11, despite Pakistan’s joining in the war on terrorism, its nationals were treated with suspicion. “Today, our isolation has increased; Kashmir is more intractable; we find ourselves without friends in Afghanistan.” He said that the Northern Alliance opposition force in Afghanistan was inherent and could not be neutralized.
Mr Rashid believed that Pakistan first missed the opportunity of taking advantage of things when the Cold War had just ended after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this context he referred to Pakistan’s support for certain Jihadi elements in Afghanistan.
He was of the view that during the 90s, because of the Pakistani intelligence agencies’ agenda the country became a regional imperial power by trying to propel certain groups to power in Afghanistan and supporting Jihadi elements in Kashmir.
