Rejecting the allegations of United States that Pakistan harbours militants, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Monday said that the US should negotiate with the Taliban instead of aiming to destroy it.
“More fighting and bloodshed is not the answer. I said it 17 years ago and I am still saying this now,” he said in an interview with a foreign news service. Imran said that US President Donald Trump’s strategy for the region, which he unveiled last month, offended Pakistanis who had made several sacrifices against terrorism.
He noted that the Taliban have safe havens in Afghanistan and that Pakistan is being subjected the group’s attacks launched from Afghan soil. “I think Donald Trump’s policy is deeply flawed,” he said, rejecting the US’s demand that Pakistan do more to combat the extremists.
“I think Pakistan has done enough. I think now the others players involved need to do more,” he said and voiced his opposition to the US’s drone strikes on Pakistan, which he said were carried out with the complicity of the government of Pakistan. “Drone attacks lead to collateral damage. If (they) were such a successful strategy, they would be winning the war,” he said.
Discussing the country’s current climate, the PTI chairman said that he believed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had no future in the country’s politics. He said that he would not pardon any corrupt figures if his countrymen voted him to power in the general elections, likely to be held in 2018, as per the schedule.
