Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader and prime minister-elect, Imran Khan has stated that his government would like to improve ties with India. He also claimed that his government wants the leaders of the two countries to come together and resolve all issues concerning the two countries, including the core issue of Kashmir through talks. The cricketer-turned politician who is claiming that he is all for making peace with India had been hurling barbs and insinuations during Nawaz Sharif’s tenure for trying to ensure better relations with India. Having promised the people of Pakistan to take a firm stance against India it seems that Imran Khan is now trying to entrap India into talks with the terrorist nation.
Imran Khan also asserted that the blame game between the two countries, which is detrimental to the subcontinent, must stop. One can only wonder what blame game he is talking about. The core reason for discord between India and Pakistan is the fact that Pakistani military establishment and ISI have been acting as organised terror outfits sending in terrorists across the border. There is no misunderstanding or blame game of any sort. India is very clear about its stance on not negotiating for peace at any level with Pakistan unless it stops exporting terrorism. The 65-year old politician who is seen as the military’s man in Pakistan added that “If they [India] take one step towards us, we will take two, but at least (we) need a start,” during his first public address after being elected as the prime minister of Pakistan.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly in Pakistan but this did not come as a surprise as claims of blatant “rigging” of elections were already doing the rounds and it was clear that Imran Khan had managed to please the military bosses. The elections were clearly rigged in his favour. Throughout his campaign, he had been taking a favourable view towards the Pakistani military forces and a critical view of Nawaz Sharif’s closeness with Prime Minister Modi in a bid to improve ties with India.
Now, it seems that Imran Khan has taken a clear U-turn. He is trying to take India for a ride by speaking in the language of peace. Trying to hit a personal note he claimed that, “I am a person who arguably knows the most people in India because of my days in cricket. We can resolve the poverty crisis in South Asia. The biggest problem is Kashmir.” He added that this blame game that whatever goes wrong in Pakistan’s Balochistan is because of India and vice versa brings us back to square one. Khan further claimed that better relations between India and Pakistan will prove to be beneficial for the entire region and that trade ties between the two neighbouring countries must be enhanced. He also blamed the Indian media for portraying Imran Khan as some sort of a Bollywood villain in recent weeks. It seems that Imran khan has a problem with why India has an opinion about him just because he was spewing venom against India throughout his election campaign.
Today, Imran Khan is giving sermons on why better Indo-Pakistan ties are necessary for the betterment of the entire region. But the fact remains that Indo-Pakistan conflict has never been resolved due to mala fide actions on the part of the Pakistani military establishment and its stooges like Imran Khan who spew venom against India. The Indian government must realise that this is nothing but a trap by the new leader to backstab Indians. It must for all purposes remain firm in its commitment of not engaging in peace talks unless and until Pakistan stops sending terrorists across the border.