PTI chairman Imran Khan. PHOTO: AFP
Talking to reporters at the Allama Iqbal International airport on his return from India, he said he was in favour of trade with India.
He said Pakistan and India should build a civil nuclear technology plant on the border, with equal workforce from each of the countries. “This move will create an air of confidence between the two neighbouring nations,” he added.
“India has deployed 700 thousand soldiers in Kashmir. The two countries will have to speak the truth to each other if they want to move forward. They will also have to fight against poverty instead of fighting wars,” Imran said.
He said good relations between Pakistan and India would help resolve the outstanding issue of Kashmir, adding that Pakistan needed peace along both its eastern and western borders.
The PTI chief said the Indian leaders he met during his visit complained that terrorism was coming into their country from Pakistan. They also had their reservations with reference to Mumbai attacks.
“I told them Pakistan also had similar apprehensions. I told them about our concerns regarding Indian interference in Balochistan and Indian sponsored militancy,” he said.
He said the subcontinent was the most poverty-stricken area in the world. “If the two countries have friendly relations and the mutual trade, investment and prosperity will come to the region.
“Pakistan is neither getting investment nor it is able to collect taxes,” he said, adding that the managers of the economy were trying to run the country by collecting taxes from the poor.
He said the foreign debts had doubled during the last seven years while unemployment and inflation were soaring. “Peace comes first, prosperity follows suit,” he added.
Imran Khan his party had planned a large demonstration against price hike in Lahore in which the national would be given an agenda. He said the announcement of Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan scheme before local body elections was a pre-poll rigging.
“Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should notice as no development scheme can be announced after promulgation of the election schedule.”
He said his party had not withdrawn its demand for recounting of the ballots and verification of the thumb impressions in four constituencies. “If the demand is ignored, the party will announce its strategy,” he warned.
Speaking at the occasion, the PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Abdul Aleem Khan said people in India were replicating the model of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and a similar party ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ had emerged in
New Delhi.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2013.
COMMENTS (55)
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@Lala Gee: @BruteForce was referring to elections conducted in 2011. And The article you quoted as a refutation of his point was written in Nov 1998, i.e., at least 13 years prior to the time-frame he was referring to.
Are Pakistani politicians really childish, or they just pretend to be? How can you be so cut off from reality.
@water bottle: "well, we are 1,200,000,000 people. those who comment here are about 500 people. you do the math what percentage is that."
Well if @d knew the maths, he would not have made the comment in the first place!
@ lalagee @ syed Kashmiri. No matter how much you people try to prove India wrong, you will never succeed.
You can always contest your claims of rigging and poll boycotts, but when it comes to elections and voting in J & K, it has always been better than Indian average.
Yes we know a large section of kashmiris have problems with Indian govt. But they also know at the back of their mind that, the more they defy, the more the things will remain constant.
@unbelievable: Pakistan has no expertise on power plant construction, lousy credit and no money — so what does Pakistan bring to this deal? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Lala brother, thank you for the link. Long Live Pakistan and Kashmir always. You will be happy to know every protest in Kashmir, we hold up Pakistani flags to show our allegiance to the idea of Pakistan and Muslim homeland. May Allah bless you and Pakistan always.
Does Mr Khan have a stand on the non prosecution of the 26/11 Accused in Pakistan? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If he does he has kept it a secret.
He said Pakistan and India should build a civil nuclear technology plant on the border, with equal workforce from each of the countries. . Pakistan has no expertise on power plant construction, lousy credit and no money -- so what does Pakistan bring to this deal?
@Last Word: You set a record; first time ever anybody has used the words "honest", "politician" and "credibility" in a sentence starting with "Imran Khan".
Imran as a genius should find solutions out of the box. Local mosque Mullahs have been telling same words for so long. He should bring new ideas and new solutions. Also somebody tell him that USA and India are democratic countries. Their government cannot make any policy which is against the wishes of majority. It was majority which did not allow Obama to attack Syria. Leaders who give such statements are ignorant or hypocrites.
Why do such hare-brained schemes always originate from Pakistan? And then they want us to believe that their nuclear and missile programs are home grown. Chinese leaders must be squirming each time they see such statements, for it only reinforces the obvious. In any case Mr. Khan, India is not interested in wasting its precious and limited resources on setting up a nuclear reactor on the border. We would rather put it where it makes sense to put up such a reactor. And we certainly don't need Pakistan's collaboration to do that. Where we do need Pakistan's collaboration though is in shutting down the terrorist camps running inside Pakistan. Please act on that.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Abdul Aleem Khan said people in India were replicating the model of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and a similar party ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ had emerged in New Delhi. What!!??? Oh my God The Pakistani Superiority complex doesn't go away!!
@Mogambo: ..."Great words from a great leader ..."
What shall I say to you, dear Mogambo??!! I'll let you live in your ignorant bliss because you hardly know this guy Imran Khan -- the less I talk about his intellectual acumen the better -- but let it suffice to say that it was not without reason that he was known as "Im the dim" in British academic circles where he was considered to be nothing more than a hollow and egomaniac playboy who played cricket and thus earned whatever few credos he got. But on Kashmir, like the fabled chameleon, Imran Khan talks differently in Pakistan and New Delhi where he said things not to offend Indian ears lest they never invite such an ungrateful guest again. Tactical maneouvering does not help in the long run; the person falls flat on his face. You must have courage, vision and sincerity. He lacks these qualities. He panders to violent extremists who have killed, and are still killing, innocent men, women and children, and then wants peace with India with Kashmir, of course, as the centrepiece of his whining. Building a nuclear plant between the two hostil countries right on their controversial borders is something new: it harbours all the ingredients of a deadly future scenario which is bound to further increase the deeply ingrained hostility, resentment and suspicion between the two sibling nations. Why not start on a rather small, innocuous project that will bring together people? Why not, for a change, clean your house first (by which I mean get rid of terrorists and extremists whom you seem to be appeasing all the time)? Why not change your history books which contain a lot of fiction rather than a historical chronology explaining the genesis of Pakistan? Why not stop the hateful lessons taught to Pakistanis in madrassahs (and their numbers multiply all the time, according to international study groups)? And why not indeed portray other minorities and religions as equals rather than as "inferior" (as if you have any traits of superiority in yourself!)? Mr. Khan, it's easy to lie to people but very, very difficult to speak the plain truth (particularly for a Pakistani who seems to be at a loss discriminating between fact and fiction)
@oBSERVER: Indeed! Now let's see you make up for yours. Would any country ever want to take on the burden of supporting people like you? Trust me, Pakistan is totally safe from conquest!
@Syed Jalal Kashmiri:
You are a negligible entity. There were millions who did vote.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/j-amp-k-panchayat-polls-record-80-turnout/article1-689573.aspx
http://zeenews.india.com/news/jammu-and-kashmir/jandamp-k-panchayat-polls-turnout-over-80-in-6th-phase_704142.html
http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=725346
Please do not speak for all Kashmiris. If you think you do, stand for elections and prove your majority. That is how Democracy works.
@water bottle: You said it. Maybe you should lower your expectations in thinking that 200 pakistanis will change pakistan's policies.
@d:
well, we are 1,200,000,000 people.
those who comment here are about 500 people.
you do the math what percentage is that.
Why build a nuclear plant at border? Why not a Hockey field which can be half in either country? Also we can have multiplexes which can show both Indian and Pakistani movies and have VISA free entry. Even hospitals can be built where poor from both countries can be treated. Least IK can do is to raise the issue of every evening show of madness at Wagah border and stop it immediately.
I hope he got some pointers from Aam admi party's president on how to mobilize a nation.
@Waqar Qureshi:
"Friendship with everyone but with respect and equity. No slavery !!"
THat made me laugh so hard.
Sorry. But you guys are slaves of one power or another throughout history.
First it was the Mughal rulers, then the British (Which we Indians suffered also). Then you were Amerika's lackeys. THen Saudi and China's.
At least India has been standing upto the bullies for the last 65 years.
@BruteForce: 80%? Where did you get this figure? I am living here in Indian Occupied Kashmir and I can tell you this is an outright lie. Most of us boycotted the elections and there was an expanded curfew in place by the Indian occupying army.
I deeply respect Pakistani politicians like Imran Khan who aren't afraid to go to India and explain honestly the views of Pakistanis and Kashmiris. Imran Khan, please do all you can to make Pakistan prosperous. In sha Allah, we want to see our Kashmir a part of this great Muslim nation.
the amount of time spent by indian commentors on pakistani domestic issues leaves me wondering whether they have enough time to consider their own domestic issues, or are indian's just that flexible?
@Emran:
Last election 80% of them voted. So it means they are pro-India. Isn't it?
@ritesh You tried fence, music concerts, Ok, if everything is not working that means Kashmiris don't want to live under indian rule.... why not just leave them and let them live freely???
@Wondering: And why are you concerned with what our public representatives have to say? You are not the audience that he is trying to court.
@Pakistanis need to GROW last time i checked the last election was highly rigged and IK was deprived from premiership. Pakistanis had voted for him but unfortunately results were rigged massively.
@Pakistanis need to GROW UP: Ask the indian organisers of the event who invited him :)
I fail to understand what Mr Khan wants to say, because while addressing the Leadership summit in New Delhi, he was singing a very different tune. He seems to have become a politician in the real sense of the term.
@nrmr44: Indeed. You have described yourself most aptly.
by the way, who is he to tell them anything? Last time I checked he was not the one who was elected by the majority of pakistanis...
@Imran Khan:
Similarly, we are not against Taliban but their policies of killing innocent people.
Nobody in AAP (Aam Adami Party) would have every imagined that the credit of their hard work and innovative approach would be taken somewhere in Pakistan.
Mr. Imran.. ........who made India to deploy those forces in Kashmir ........we tried everything from fencing our borders to international music concerts, creating manufacturing sectors in Kashmir but something spoils it evertime.. ...ask yourself what is it
We in favour of good relationship not only to USA and India but with all countries of the world. We not want to be blaimed for wrong doing in the world. We should civilzed nation.
700 thousand troops in Kashmir .. That's 70% of the total strength on Indian Army.. Why would they keep such huge no in Kashmir when the largest threat comes from China in the east.
Pak should get out of disillusionment that India want to conquer Pak. No one in India has that desire, India is actively building it's defense deterrence capability against China. We have to compete with China and not Pak.
@Anjaan: Even the people of Pakistan are against Pakistans policies....or more like the lack of policies.
When and how in the world does the AAP replicated the PTI? Does these politicians feel superior to their neighbors?
@Iram above agreed cent percent. Friendship with everyone but with respect and equity. No slavery !! No compromise on nation interests. We are with IK here as well unlike Drone Apologists ;-)
Here is proof from his own mouth. This man is a charade. Joke. He has no idea what he is talking about. High schooler does better. You don't build nuclear plants on borders. Just to share work forces. They are built after long careful feasibility studies. Careful analysis.
"They will also have to fight against poverty" How can we fight against poverty when we are sporting a million plus army with active drone programs and nuclear warheads by hundreds? While India is producing power by nuclear our efforts are directed toward weaponization. Our top nuclear scientists were thrilled by water powered car but no progress in atomic energy! Pakistan had its first nuclear reactor for power half a century ago. How much progress have we made since then to produce power? Put your money where your mouth is.
I think it was the same stance before going to India. The 'On Return From India' was really unnecessary from ET
Its policies are what makes a nation. If you oppose India's policies you oppose India, and there is no other way India will read it. Before you can be wise you have to be intelligent!
The Real Headines... ++++++++++++++ PTI not against US, India Pakistan but their policies, says Imran
To understand discourse of IK, PHD is not required but one has to remove optical of bias.
Lol. Whatever dude!
@Shahid:
No rigging in India - its electronic voting system.
Aam Admi party has been in existence for a total of 1 year and it has been successful in today s election. PTI in existence for last 15 yrs and it has been "successful"