Prime Minister Imran Khan delivered a detailed speech on the floor of National Assembly on Wednesday concentrating on relations between Washington and Islamabad. He stressed that Pakistan could be a partner in peace but never in conflict. He criticized past policies of governments that led Pakistan to join the Afghan War.
“When we gave so many services to the US, did they praise us? Instead, they shifted the blame on Pakistan. They called us a hypocrite instead of appreciating us.”
He added that As a Pakistani, I never felt more insulted than when Pakistan decided to join the American war on terror in Afghanistan. I questioned repeatedly whether Al Qaeda was in Afghanistan, Taliban’s were in Afghanistan, what did we have to do with the war?
He wanted the nation to remember that period forever as any person or an institution or a country can never move forward without learning from past mistakes.
No country involves in other’s war and loses 70,000 people, $150 billion economy.
We were declared the most dangerous place. Even no cricket team was ready to visit. What they said, we kept doing.
He also gave a reference to a book by Tommy Franks, a US general,
“We knew Musharraf was vulnerable, so we kept pushing him.”
The Prime Minister said that in a meeting of the US Senate, an American commander had claimed that the Pakistan government did “not tell the truth” to its citizens. “We disrespect ourselves, the world did not respect us.”
The premier said that after deciding that there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, the US wanted Pakistan to bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiation table.
“What leverage do we have? We can only tell them that there could be a civil war.” He cleared that Pakistan do not want to have favourites. Whatever Afghan people choose, we are with them.