ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday criticized Imran Khan and called for the accountability of the ex-prime minister for what the former said was backtracking on his allegation that he was ousted from power as part of a United States-backed “foreign conspiracy.”
Khan, who was ousted in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April, has since been agitating against the government of PM Shehbaz Sharif. The former premier has held dozens of rallies nationwide at which he has repeatedly told his supporters he was ousted for pursuing an independent foreign policy for Pakistan. Washington and Khan’s opponents have denied it.
Asked about his foreign conspiracy claims, Khan last week told the Financial Times he wanted to mend relations with the US, saying “it’s over, it’s behind me.” While Khan’s party says it still believes in his foreign conspiracy statement but wants to focus on the new election now, his statement to the British paper has sparked a debate in Pakistan about the assertions, which many say even strained Pakistan-US relations at the time.
Reiterating Khan’s statements against the US over the past few months, Asif said the former premier had “fallen at their (US) feet” now.
“’It’s behind me, it’s over.’ This US conspiracy, foreign conspiracy was on [their] profile for seven, eight months. If all this ends, who give ‘real freedom’ to the people of Pakistan,” the minister told Pakistan’s Geo News channel.
“A politician should be accountable. Someone should hold them accountable that you said all this, what was the basis of it? Today you have taken a U-turn, what basis does it have?”
Though Khan has lately scaled down his rhetoric against the US, the ex-premier continues to mount pressure on the government for early elections in the country.
Since late last month, Khan has been holding an anti-government protest march from Lahore to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad in a bid to force the government into acceding to his demands.
Khan says the incumbent government was imposed on the South Asian country as part of the same conspiracy that ousted him from power.
Asif said the former premier’s statement to the Financial Times confirmed that PM Sharif’s government took over the country in a “legitimate, legal and constitutional way.”
“The way he [Khan] is appeasing the US and the West [now], this means, God forbid, if he forms a government in future, it would a government sponsored by America,” Asif added.