Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke about his wife, his admiration for US President Donald Trump and criticism of the military among other things in an interview with German magazine Der Speigel.
The interview was published on Friday and spanned a number of topics, including Pakistan’s COVID-19 response, the Afghan peace deal and possible ties with Israel.
Here are some of the interesting things the premier discussed in the interview.
His wife
Only a fool doesn’t talk about everything with his wife, said PM Khan. “She has great wisdom. I discuss everything with her, also problems I face in government, dealing with complex situations.”
He called Bushra Bibi his soulmate and companion. “I would not have survived without her.”
Ties with Israel
The UAE, Bahrain and Sudan have all established ties with Israel and Saudi Arabia is possibly following suit, noted the magazine. But PM Khan said every country has its own foreign policy priorities.
“As for Pakistan, the founder of the nation, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, a brilliant man, spoke in the 1940s about the Palestinian situation as a huge violation of human rights. Pakistan still takes this view. Unless there’s a just settlement, we cannot recognize Israel.”
Law preventing criticism of Pakistan Army
When asked if the new law prohibiting criticism of the Pakistan Army will end freedom of speech in the country, PM Khan said Pakistan has more freedom of speech than almost any Western country.
“And I use the word freedom very carefully, after having spent almost two decades of my life in England, where they have very strong laws on slander. There was a defamation case between me and an English cricket star that I won, because defamation laws are very strong there. But such slander laws don’t exist in Pakistan, I have been wrongly slandered as prime minister, here and gone to court, but even as prime minister, I haven’t been able to get justice.”
The premier clarified that as long as the criticism is based on “truth and facts”, it will be accepted. “Every day, our security forces lose people in battle. Every country protects its institutions, not when they do something wrong, but when they’re being attacked.”
When the magazine raised concerns about the new law making it impossible for journalists to report on the army, PM Khan said “There will be another way of dealing with the security forces – not through the media, but through the government”.
“I will speak to the army chief if I think there’s something wrong. There are always human rights violations in military operations and sometimes we speak about it when it happens. But this should not be done in public.”
When soldiers are risking their lives, you cannot demoralize them in public, he said.
Admiration of Donald Trump
The prime minister was asked about the upcoming US elections and whom he thinks has a better chance of winning. “Joe Biden is in front in the opinion polls, but Donald Trump is very unpredictable, because he’s not like normal politicians. He plays by his own rules.”
When asked if he admires Trump, PM Khan narrated his own story of building the PTI into the “biggest party in Pakistan” over 22 years and the out-of-the-box-thinking he had to do.
“We had to be very unorthodox, and in some ways, Donald Trump does too,” he said.
But when asked whom he prefers to work with, he said what Pakistan wants from the US is even-handed treatment with respect to India, especially with the dispute in Kashmir.
from SAMAA https://ift.tt/35TRYAV
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