Pakistan should turn a new leaf in its ties with India

As long as Americans do not withdraw from Afghanistan there will be no peace in the region, Pakistani cricketing legend and leader of Tehreek-i-Insaf Imran Khan told Arab News in an exclusive interview. He predicted America would withdraw from Afghanistan eventually, but added US forces should make a clean and orderly withdrawal with consideration for neighboring countries. “If they withdraw suddenly without making such arrangements they will then leave Afghanistan in a big mess. And there will be a civil war even worse than the one that took place after the Soviets withdrew in the 1980’s,” he said. Speaking to Arab News in Jeddah, Khan said Pakistan should turn a new leaf in its relationship with India. “This cold war is costing both the countries enormously. We should resolve our issues politically with dialogue. And if we decide that this is a political issue not a military one, then India, Pakistan and Kashmiris should sit together and solve the problem taking into account the wishes of Kashmiris,” he said. “It should be a relationship based on trust, and both countries will benefit from peace.” He said Pakistanis have always had a close relationship with Saudis and one that will always remain strong. On the political scene in Pakistan and possible alliances with other parties, the former cricketer-turned politician rejected the idea. “We will not have an alliance with any other party because of what they have done in the past and are still doing now, and they will not change their system of governance,” he said. He said many ex-ministers and other famous politicians are joining his party and despite that fact they worked with the two main parties in Pakistan, all of them are financially clean. “In the recent Senate election the Peoples Party and Pakistani Muslim League (N) (PML) made a deal and seats were sold. This Senate has lost its credibility,” Khan said. Khan said the situation in Pakistan is similar to the Arab Spring where youths rallied for change. “We have an Arab Spring with a plus point. Our youths are under one leadership. In Pakistan it started even before the Arab Spring when lawyers and civil society stood behind the chief justice during (Pervez) Musharraf’s era. At that time it did not have a leadership and it was hijacked by PML. But now this movement is under Tehreek-i-Insaf, and this is reflected in the biggest gatherings and biggest rallies in Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan’s history,” he added. Khan laughed off allegations by his opponents that the army is backing him and said this a lame accusation, because the army can only give funds, but it cannot encourage people to attend mass rallies that attract up to a quarter of a million. They could not do it during Musharraf’s time when only 35,000 attended his last rally in Islamabad in May 2007, he added. Khan said the case moved by Air Marshal Asghar Khan against the army and ISI funding politicians has started and the country will know whom they funded. If it is proven the ISI has given his party one Pakistani rupee, Khan said he would quit politics for good. Speaking on his vision for the relationship with the US, he said: “We want a sovereign Pakistan, not a client of America. America brokered the NRO deal with Musharraf to bring Benazir (Bhutto) back to Pakistan and I truly believe that this was the biggest crime against the people of Pakistan.” Tehreek-i-Insaf will have a sovereign government and will not take aid from America. “We want friendly relationship like the one the US has with India,” he added. He said his country is facing a big problem involving tax evasion by the rich. “All the big politicians have their money outside Pakistan. I am the only politician who made his money outside Pakistan and took it back to my country and declared it in my name. I have nothing outside,” he said. He added the ruling elites have not declared their assets and are not paying any taxes and that is why the country cannot fight corruption domestically. According to Transparency International this has cost Pakistan 8.5 trillion rupee in four years, while the country’s annual expenditure is 3 trillion rupees. The two big parties that have governed the country for many years have not made any law against corruption although they passed three constitutional amendments. “And as we have seen, when their interests are the same they unite,” he said, adding they are afraid of any anti-corruption law. Khan said that the war on terror is not Pakistan’s war, adding that it has cost Pakistan more than $50 billion in four years and left 40,000 dead. “We also lost our security as suicide bombers played havoc with the lives of Pakistanis.”