Acknowledging that in Pakistan’s history, civilian and military leaderships have had a ‘chequered relationship’ Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government had an excellent relationship with the armed forces.
Giving an interview to Al-Jazeera, PM Imran said that “the military stands with us” and that “we have an excellent relationship”.
“I honestly think it’s the most harmonious relationship, we have complete coordination, we work together, the military completely stands with all the government’s democratic policies,” he said, adding that the armed forces and the civilian government were on the same page whether it came to the India policy or peace in Afghanistan.
Speaking about the Afghanistan war, he said the 19 years of war had created such “divisions in society” that it was not possible for everyone to get together for peace all of a sudden.
However, he acknowledged that progress had been made in the peace talks. “This is the nearest we have got to peace in Afghanistan and a political solution,” he said.
“Whatever the Afghans think is good for them, is good for us,” he said, adding that Pakistan had done whatever it could to get the Afghan government and the Taliban on the table for talks.
He acknowledged that there were ‘spoilers’ in the peace process and said that India was definitely not in favour of peace in the war-torn country.
In response to a question about freedom of the press and expression in Pakistan, PM Imran said that that “blatant propaganda” had taken place against his government.
He said that India was not a stakeholder in the Afghanistan peace process as it did not have a border with Afghanistan whereas Pakistan did.
“Instability there creates instability in the border regions what were former tribal areas of Pakistan and that creates a problem for the whole country,” he said.
Speaking on the India-Pakistan relations, PM Imran said that when he became the country’s prime minister, he extended ” a hand of friendship towards India”.
“The tragedy of India is that it is being ruled by an extremist,” said PM Imran. “It is an extremist government. It is a Hindu supremacist government inspired by the ideology of the Nazis,” he added.
He recalled how the RSS had been thrice banned in India, lamenting that the proponents of such an extremist organisation was in control of a nuclear-armed country of more than a billion people.
In response to a question about whether he thinks Western countries abandoned Pakistan on the issue of occupied Kashmir, PM Imran said that many countries unfortunately kept their commercial interests in mind.
He said that the world looks upon India as a “huge market” hence it was ignoring such a huge travesty of justice in Kashmir.
“It doesn’t mean that we are sitting down and accepting this. We will keep trying,” he said.
Answering a question about Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia, he said that the kingdom will “always be a friend of Pakistan” however, admitting that Islamabad wanted the OIC to take a front-role when it came to the issue of occupied Kashmir.
