Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan gave an exclusive interview to CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday, the first with an international news organisation since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month. During the interview, Khan talked about the Taliban’s return to power, women’s rights in Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s relations with the United States (US).
On the Taliban’s Return to Power
Noting that the Taliban controls most of Afghanistan now, Khan insisted that the world should engage with the group and “incentivise” them because they feel that “without international aid and help, they will not be able to stop this crisis.” Therefore, the international community must push the group in “the right direction towards legitimacy,” Khan said.
Also Read: Taliban Seize Power in Afghanistan, President Ghani Flees Country as Government Collapses
If the Taliban can “work towards an inclusive government, get all the factions together, Afghanistan could have peace after 40 years,” he said. “But if it goes wrong and which is what we are really worried about, it could go to chaos. The biggest humanitarian crisis, a huge refugee problem,” Khan warned.
He claimed it was not the Taliban who destabilised Afghanistan and blamed the Soviet and American invasions for the chaos. He pointed that Afghanistan witnessed a “bloodbath” following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 and said he was expecting a similar bloodbath after the US withdrawal.
The Pakistani PM reasoned that event before the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan faced conflicts, poverty, droughts, economic decline, and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Khan, the world must give the Taliban “more time” to form a legitimate government.
On Pakistan Supporting the Taliban
Khan dismissed criticisms of Islamabad supporting the Taliban and funding terrorism. He said Pakistan could not feasibly aid the Taliban when it is facing its own economic crisis. “The total budget of Pakistan is $50 billion for 220 million people. [...] Did we have the capacity to fund another war [when] we can barely meet our expenses?” he said.
Responding to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments that Pakistan supports the Taliban and is involved in “harbouring” its members, Khan said, “I have never heard such ignorance.” He also stressed that Pakistan does not provide “safe havens” to terrorists. “The area of Pakistan along the border of Afghanistan had the heaviest surveillance by the United States drones [...] surely they would have known if there were any safe havens?” he said.
On Pakistan’s Ties with the US
Khan said Islamabad’s relationship with Washington had been “terrible” since the latter invaded Afghanistan, and that the consequences of its occupation have been disastrous for Pakistan. He criticised US President Joe Biden for calling back all American troops from Afghanistan and pointed that Biden had not spoken with him since the Taliban takeover, despite Pakistan playing a crucial role in the region. “I would imagine he’s very busy, but our relationship with the US is not just dependent on a phone call. It needs to be a multidimensional relationship,” he added.
“We (Pakistan) were like a hired gun [and] were supposed to make them (the US) win the war in Afghanistan, which we never could,” Khan said, talking about Pakistan’s role in the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan. Khan said he repeatedly warned American officials that the US could not achieve its military objectives in Afghanistan and would “be stuck there.”
Khan said the US should have attempted a political solution with the Taliban from a “position of strength” at the height of its presence in Afghanistan, not while withdrawing. He added that thousands of Pakistanis lost their lives in terrorist attacks just because they supported the US. “Just because we sided with the US, we became an ally of the US after 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan.” He said, “The suffering this country went through with at one point there were 50 militant groups attacking our government.”
Moreover, the PM mentioned that the US conducted 480 drone attacks in Pakistan. “Only time a country has been attacked by its ally,” Khan said, adding that he cannot destroy his country to “fight someone else’s war.”
On Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
Regarding the Taliban’s promises to respect women’s rights in Afghanistan, Khan said, “It’s a mistake to think that someone from outside will give Afghan women rights. Afghan women are strong. Give them time. They will get their rights.”
Also Read: The Taliban Could Reverse Two Decades of Progress in Women’s Education in Afghanistan.
However, the international community is not convinced that the Taliban will uphold its promise to respect women’s rights and fear that its regime would revert to treating women as second-class citizens like it did during the late 1990s.
Read the full transcript here.