Pakistan's jailed former premier Imran Khan on Tuesday claimed that Army chief Asim Munir deliberately sabotaged relations with Afghanistan to appease the lobby that opposes the current Taliban government in Kabul.
The 72-year-old patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been in jail for over two years in multiple cases.
"Relations with Afghanistan have been deliberately sabotaged since Asim Munir assumed charge (of army chief) with continuous provocations to push them into war with Pakistan -- all to appease the lobby that opposes the current Afghan government and to project himself before the West as the so-called saviour," Khan said in a post on X.
He said the "Munir regime" first issued grave threats to the Afghan government and then, in blatant violation of religious, moral, and international refugee rights, expelled Afghan brothers who had been residing in Pakistan for three generations.
"Then attacks were launched on Afghan soil, and now operations have been initiated in the tribal areas under the pretext that terrorists have arrived. Because of these policies, our own people are being killed everywhere... This approach can never establish peace. Lasting peace only comes through dialogue," Khan said. He added that for the establishment of peace in Afghanistan and the tribal regions, three stakeholders must be brought together. "First, the people of Pakistan’s tribal areas; second, the Afghan government; and third, the Afghan people. No operation can succeed without the cooperation of these three stakeholders, nor can any sustainable solution be found." The former cricketer-turned-politician believes that attempts are being made to discredit his party's government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
"A military operation will only fuel further terrorism, and as the police are diverted to counter rising terrorism, governance and law and order will collapse, " he said Khan directed all lawmakers from the KP to sit together with Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to urgently resolve the challenges of the province. Special measures must be taken to maintain peace in flood-hit areas, he added. "Our allies, under the leadership of Mahmood Khan Achakzai, should take a peace delegation to Afghanistan and seek solutions through dialogue," he said.
Khan also said that the time for accepting a government that originated from a rigged election as legitimate is over. That is why resignations from the Senate and parliamentary committees have been tendered, he added. "My message to my party's parliamentarians is to neither fear the ‘Asim Law’ imposed upon the country, nor the prospect of imprisonment. A single individual seeks to crush you merely to satisfy his own lust for power. The more you fear them, the more they will suppress you. You are standing on the side of truth, and truth gives man courage. Victory belongs only to the truth," Khan said.
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