Imran Khan rebuts anti-west charges, says vision for Islamic society looks like Scandinavia

Imran Khan rebuts anti-West charges, says vision for Islamic society looks like Scandinavia

Washington: (Saturday, January 14, 2012) Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Imran Khan who is fast becoming a popular political figure in Pakistan yesterday while rebutting charges of being an anti-West said the vision he has of
turning Pakistan into an Islamic society looked like Scandinavia.

Khan, who has emerged as the only politician with credibility in Pakistan drawing hundreds of thousands of followers in recent rallies in different parts of the country, however, reiterated his criticism of the USA’s campaign against
religious extremists as he addressed the PTI workers in Washington.

Rejecting the perception of him being an anti-West, Khan, an Oxford graduate who spent a major chunk of his life in West, and who was married to a writer Jemima Khan , said, “To be anti-Western makes absolutely no sense at all.
The West is geography. How can you be anti-geography?”

“And to be anti-American”, he said, “how can you be anti-a whole country, where there are so many different views? I have always been anti-the American war on terror. I have always thought that this was an insane war.”

Speaking in the context of Pakistan joining US war on terror as an ally, Imran said that this had left the country far more radicalized and bereft of the infrastructure worth billions of dollars. He said, “I have never understood
what they were trying to achieve. I still don’t know what is victory in the war on terror”

Referring to the US recent approach of having dialogues with the Taliban forces in Afghanistan, Imran said, “In my opinion, the only solution is to have dialogue, a political solution, the same as is the case across the border
in Afghanistan.”

Talking about his idea of turning Pakistan into an Islamic welfare state, Imran said he must need to demystify the idea. He said, “If you ask me today what is closest to that ideal, I would say the Scandinavian countries”. To him,
Scandinavian countries could be potential role models for Pakistan. To him, it will be a society which will be “humane society, where there is rule of law, a society that looks after its weak, its handicapped.”

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=9302

Posted by Fayyaz Yaseen on Jan 14 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry