Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday addressed a massive rally in Dargai, a small town in the Malakand district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Facing a no-confidence motion, he not only rebuked the opposition but also asked dissidents of his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to return to the fold. But what made headlines was his unusual admiration for India and its foreign policy.
During his rally, Khan said, “I salute India today. It has an independent foreign policy. India is a member of the Quad Alliance in which the United States is also a member. But it is importing oil from Russia which is facing sanctions. It calls itself neutral. India’s own foreign policy is dedicated to its people.”
At a rally on 7 March, Imran Khan reprimanded Western envoys based in Islamabad for pressurizing Pakistan to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations General Assembly. During the rally, the Prime Minister of Pakistan attacked the European Union and asked if he had written the same letter to India.
In his most brutal attack on opposition PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif, Imran Khan questioned Pakistan’s involvement in the US war on terrorism. “We became part of America’s war on terrorism in Afghanistan and caused 80,000 lives and $100 billion in damage,” he said. On 7 March, Imran Khan said that Pakistan suffered because it supported NATO in Afghanistan. ‘Shahbaz polished shoes of western powers’