Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday snubbed the Indian media, saying the Indian RSS ideology is the main hurdle in normalisation of ties between Pakistan and India.

The prime minister, who is in Tashkent to participate in a conference on ‘Central and South Asia Regional Connectivity, challenges and opportunities’, responded to the question by an Indian journalist, who sought Pakistan’s stance on talks with India.

“We have been trying to tell India … that we have been waiting … for a long time, let’s live like civilized neighbours, … but what to do, as the RSS ideology has come in the way,” he said.

The prime minister was leaving the Congress Hall after attending the conference when an Indian journalist asked that India wants to know whether talks and terror go together.

The prime minister has very clear views about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its extremist policies. In an earlier tweet, the prime minister had pointed out that the “RSS ideology of Hindu supremacy, like the Nazi Aryan Supremacy, will not stop in IOK; instead, it will lead to suppression of Muslims in India & eventually lead to targeting of Pakistan. The Hindu Supremacists version of Hitler’s Lebensraum.”

The prime minister’s two-year-old tweet on the RSS involvement in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir stands true to the day as the extremist Hindu policies have made the lives of non-Hindus unbearable under the government of RSS-backed Bharatiya Janata Party government of Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday also asked Afghanistan to consider Pakistan as a ‘partner of peace’ rather than blaming it for the ongoing unrest, which he said was the ‘outcome of using a military solution by the United States instead of a political one’. “Blaming Pakistan for what is going on in Afghanistan is extremely unfair…Peace in Afghanistan is our foremost priority,” the prime minister said, in response to the speech of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the conference on ‘Central and South Asia Regional Connectivity, Challenges and Opportunities’ held at Congress Centre.

Rejecting the assertions of President Ghani made against Pakistan for ‘not supporting peace’, the prime minister categorically stated that Pakistan did not want turmoil in its neighbourhood because peace was in its own interest. “Mr Ghani, I want to make it clear to you that Pakistan will be the last country to think about supporting turmoil and unrest in Afghanistan,” he said, adding that Pakistan will continue to support reconciliation in Afghanistan and urged the Afghan stakeholders and the international community to gear up efforts for a ‘politically negotiated settlement’.

He mentioned that due to decades-long conflict in Afghanistan, Pakistan suffered heavily in terms of its 70,000 casualties besides facing huge economic instability. As Pakistan’s economy was recovering following a difficult phase, he said, the country wanted peace in its neighbourhood to ensure the completion of development projects for the betterment of the entire region.

Imran Khan said Pakistan had made every effort for peace in Afghanistan, including bringing the Taliban to the dialogue table. However, he said the right time to engage Taliban in negotiations was way before the pullout of the US troops from Afghanistan. “Why would the Taliban listen to Pakistan at a time when they are gaining victory after the withdrawal of troops,” he pointed out, adding that the US always insisted on a military solution to the Afghan conflict.

He said Pakistan is already hosting over three million Afghan refugees and did not have the capacity to bear another influx of refugees in the wake of further turmoil. The prime minister said in his meeting with President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, he discussed the ways how the neighbouring countries of Central Asia could support peace and stability in Afghanistan for the region’s prosperity.

Imran Khan said another challenge to regional development was the “unsettled disputes” in South Asia, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir. “The unsettled disputes between Pakistan and India remain a challenge with Kashmir as the main issue,” he said, adding that unfortunately, because of such a situation, the huge potential of regional development remained untapped.

The prime minister said Pakistan believed in regional connectivity by promoting the land and sea linkages among the countries to boost economic activity. He said Pakistan’s Gwadar seaport had the potential to cater to the needs of Central Asia and South Asia as a regional transportation hub. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he said, would prove a harbinger of development and prosperity for the region, benefitting the two regions.