Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan said he wants to mend relations with the US despite accusing it of treating Pakistan as a “slave”, signaling a desire to work with Washington after claiming it conspired to remove him as prime minister a few months ago, Financial Times reported.
In an interview following an assassination attempt this month, Khan said he no longer “blamed” the US and wants a “dignified” relationship if re-elected.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s over, it’s behind me,” he said of the alleged conspiracy, which both Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the US denied.
“The Pakistan I want to lead must have good relationships with everyone, especially the United States,” Khan said. “Our relationship with the US has been as of a master-servant relationship, or a master-slave relationship, and we’ve been used like a hired gun. But for that, I blame my own government more than the US.”
The former cricket captain was ousted in April in a no-confidence vote that he claims resulted from a conspiracy between prime minister Sharif and the US.
Ali Sarwar Naqvi, a former Pakistani diplomat, said that Khan would struggle to mend relations with the US. “If Imran Khan ever returns to power, Pakistan’s relations with the US will remain under stress,” he said.
Khan admitted that a visit to Moscow a day before the Ukraine invasion in February — for which he claims the US retaliated against him — was “embarrassing” but said the trip was organised months in advance.
FT reported that many analysts believe that Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) party is the most likely winner of a general election that has to be held by next year, following a surge in his popularity thanks in part to his anti-American rhetoric.
Khan criticised Pakistan’s IMF programme, first started under his government in 2019 but revived by Sharif, for pushing austerity measures like higher fuel prices at a time of painful inflation. “When you contract the economy, and some of the IMF measures make your economy shrink, how are you supposed to pay off your loans, because your loans keep increasing?” he said.
“Consumption has crashed . . . So my question is: How are we going to pay our debts? We are certainly going to head towards default.”
Critics accuse Khan of further jeopardising this economic outlook by damaging relations with the US, IMF and other international partners on whom Pakistan depends for financing.
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