Modi will damage India more than any enemy: PM

After a long time Pakistan enjoys ‘respectful relations’ with US, says Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that India is backing the Daesh/ISIS terror group to foment sectarianism in the country, a week after terrorists slaughtered 11 coal miners in the Machh area of Balochistan, triggering nationwide protests against the brutal incident.

Referring to the Daesh-claimed killings, Premier Khan said: "This is the unanimous opinion of our government and our security agencies that India is backing ISIS."

Speaking to digital media influencers on Sunday, he charged New Delhi with inflaming the Shia-Sunni divide in Pakistan.

"The objective of the Narendra Modi government is to inflame sectarianism in Pakistan by having Shia and Sunni scholars killed. But our security agencies timely preempted the plans, and arrested many terrorists," he said, particularly referring to the killing of Sunni scholar Maulana Adil Khan in port city of Karachi last year.

Many religious scholars have been killed in Pakistan in the recent past.

The prime minister said terrorists managed to target the Shia community by taking advantage of sparse population and remote nature of the area.

"Unfortunately, several [militant] groups emerged following the ouster of Soviet troops in 1989. These groups have inflicted a huge damage on us," he said. "These sectarian groups have [now] morphed into Daesh."

To a question related to Pakistan’s foreign policy and any possibility of dialogue with the government in New Delhi, the prime minister ruled out any possibility of talks with India, saying the Narendra Modi-led right wing Hindu nationalist government will cause tremendous damage to its own country more than any enemy.

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“Time will tell that the Modi government will cause damage to the country more than its enemy. “No talks possible with India until they restore the autonomous status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir [IIOJK],” he said.

Pakistan downgraded its ties with India in August 2019 when the Modi-led government abrogated the autonomous status of IIOJK besides deploying tens of thousands of additional troops and putting the disputed valley under military siege.

The premier said that the only goal of the Modi government is to "spread chaos in Pakistan".

According to the Foreign Office, more than 300 innocent Kashmiris, including women and children, have been martyred in fake encounters and staged cordon-and-search operations during the last one year in the Himalayan territory.

PM Khan said Pakistan, after a long time, has established “very respectful” relations with the United States. “We don’t have relations with the US like in the past when it would ask us to do more.”

Besides, the premier maintained that Pakistan enjoyed cordial relations with others countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan. “International relations is a dynamic process not a static. It constantly changes,” he said while responding to the question whether New Delhi overtures affecting Islamabad ties with its allies particularly Gulf countries.

“We don’t have adversarial relations with any country except India which is trying to destabilise Pakistan,” the prime minister said.

He was of the view that Pakistan’s main objective is to become financially sovereign to pursue its foreign policy goals without any external influence.

'Change is an exercise in continuity'

Premier Khan also said that bringing about change is a continuous struggle that one can retire from only at death.

He said 'change' is not a switch that could be turned on at one's whim.

The prime minister said that out of 220 million people in Pakistan, only 3,000 pay 70 per cent taxes.

“Half of the taxes we [the government] collect go in debt settlement of loans taken by previous governments,” the PM reiterated.

“My life would be a lot easier if I give the opposition the NRO, but it would be disastrous for Pakistan,” he said.

PM Imran added that the country is at a decisive point. "Our exports is growing, the construction industry is thriving," he said, adding that the service industry was still in crisis all over the world at the moment.

“When you cut expenses, you bring down the demand,” he said.

On January 5, it was reported that filing of income tax returns (ITRs) had improved significantly during the tax year 2020, according to a statement issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

“Around 1.768 million taxpayers filed their income tax returns before the deadline ie December 8, 2020, while revenue received by FBR stood at Rs22 billion by this date,” it said.

“The number of filers has further increased to 2.316 million while tax collection rose to Rs43.6 billion till January 4, 2021, as compared to 2.181 million filers and collection of Rs28 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year, showing an increase of 55% in tax collection in current year.” (With input from agencies)