Transparent elections only solution to country's issues: Imran Khan
Pakistan
Transparent elections only solution to country’s issues, says Imran Khan
KARACHI (Dunya News) – Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has said that the only solution to the issues facing the country is free and transparent election and the government that comes with the majority should establish the rule of law.
Addressing a seminar in Karachi through video link on Tuesday, he said that the country’s situation was not good when his party came into power and the biggest his government faced was current account deficit.
He said no government in the past has focused on increasing exports and the situation would have worsened had the Saudi Arabia, China and United Arab Emirates did not help.
“Coronavirus was the biggest crisis during PTI government’s tenure and I was facing alot of pressure to impose lockdown,” Imran Khan said adding that he was criticized for not imposing lockdown but the people would have died of hunger, if his government had imposed a lockdown.
He went on to say that no one knows where we would be standing in a month but according to the Gallup survey, 88 percent of Pakistan s direction is not correct, adding that the country will not be stable unless elections are held.
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Strong US, India ties
On Monday, In an interview with a British newspaper The Telegraph, former PM and PTI chairman Imran Khan said that he would try to establish strong ties with neighbouring India, Afghanistan, Iran, China and the US if he is again elected as the prime minister.
He said that good relations are impossible in India as long as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains in power, but I want better relations with News Delhi.
Khan said that the potential economic benefits that establishing trade between the two arch rivals would bring but said these would never be realised until Delhi changes its stance on the disputed region of Indian-administered Kashmir.
“The benefits would be enormous. But, we are stuck on this issue and we need a strong roadmap to resolve it. I think it’s possible but the BJP government is so hardline, they have a nationalistic stance on issues,” he said.
The former prime minister said that the benefits from trade would be huge but Indian stand on Occupied Kashmir is the main obstacle because the attitude of the Indian ruling party is hardline, the BJP incites nationalist sentiments, causing the situation to spiral out of control.
“We want to solve the problem of Kashmir, for which there should be a road map,” he said and added we do not accept that Kashmiris are not given rights. When India ended the special status of Occupied Kashmir, the relations between the two countries became cold.
The PTI chairman said, “We really need a relationship with both countries. What I do not want is another Cold War situation when we are in blocks, like in the last Cold War we were allied with the United States.”
He said: “The whole of Central Asia, Afghanistan, became out of our orbit. My main concern for Pakistan is how to lift 120 million out of poverty and the best way to do that is if we can have a relationship with everyone, to trade with everyone, so we can help our population.”
