ISLAMABAD: Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, in an interview to London-based anchor and correspondent of American news channel, said United States (US) has failed to tackle insurgency in Afghanistan and levelling baseless allegations on Pakistan over their sheer failure.
“Hundred and fifty thousand North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and American troops have failed to tackle the small number of Afghan insurgents,” Khan said.
Deploring unnecessary US criticism, he deemed it humiliating for all Pakistanis after giving so many sacrifices in war against terrorism.
“Pakistan remained an ally to USA after 9/11 [incident] and ended up in losing over 70,000 people and hundred billion dollars to the economy,” He asserted.
On the Donald Trump’s accusation of harbouring terrorists, Khan said it was disheartening for most of the people to hear such remarks.
“US cannot blame Pakistan for Afghanistan losses,” he insisted.
He said Pakistan has been sustaining collateral damage in the Afghan adventure, adding all the political parties in Pakistan devised a joint strategy and implemented National Action Plan (NAP) in order to disarm the terrorists.
“Around eighty per cent population in the tribal areas [Federally Administrated Tribal Areas] were internally displaced due to the counter-terror operations in the areas,” he added.
Declaring Trump’s policy as flop, he advised him to revise it by engaging the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan. “The negotiations with Afghans should be arranged,” he added.
It merits to mention here that US president Donald Trump – in a televised address earlier this week – while announcing his country’s Afghanistan policy had accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists while slamming his country’s major ally for going too easy on terrorists on its soil.
