China is Pakistan’s greatest friend, rescuer: PM Imran Khan
Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that China is Pakistan’s greatest friend and had always come to the rescue in difficult times.
In an interview with Jonathan Swan of ‘Axios on HBO’, PM Khan said China has been “the greatest friends to us in our most difficult times. China came to the rescue when our economy was struggling.”
Asked to comment on the negative propaganda of mistreat of the Muslims in Xjnjiang region, the PM said he had been speaking about this with the Chinese people “behind the closed doors;” and as long as he has been informed, “this is not the case, according to the Chinese people.”
The premier said he was “more concerned about what is happening at the border” of his own country, Pakistan.
“What our conversations have been with Chinese, this (alleged mistreatment) is not the case. Whatever issues we have with Chinese, we speak to them behind closed doors,” he repeated as the interviewer tried to provoke him.
On the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, he stressed that there must be a prior “political settlement” as military solution was not the viable option.
To a question, the prime minister said his foremost priorities were alleviation of poverty and making the country a welfare state.
Prime minister Khan said in his opinion, rule of law, was very important as a country would remain poor if did not have rule of law.
He referred to a fact-finding report under the office of UN secretary general which had identified a flight of capital from the developing countries worth 1 trillion dollars every year to the western capitals.
On “doing vastly better than the United States” on COVID-19, the prime minister said partial lockdown coupled with comprehensive data analysis helped his government keep the pandemic in control.
Smart lockdown was the “best decision” to cope with the situation, he added.
About the successful lockdown policy of the government, the prime minister said that clamping down a complete lockdown would have impacted the economy. “Pakistan had already dire economic situation,” but the government’s smart lockdown policy saved the economy, he added.
“A balanced approach actually saved us and Pakistan managed to save its economy and people’s lives,” he added.
He mentioned that an effective working of the Command and Control Centre with daily data monitoring and input by provinces, army, doctors and health specialists helped the government handle the situation.
