Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he believed US President Joe Biden was targeted with “unfair criticism” over troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and termed his decision as “the most sensible thing to do”, according to a media report.
In an interview to Russian broadcaster RT, Khan said he wasn’t sure whether the US had any coherent policy on what they were going to do in the war-ravaged country, the Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday.
Referring to the US pulling out troops from Afghanistan and commending the American president for his decision, he said, “There was so much unfair criticism of President Biden, and what he did was the most sensible thing to do.”
The prime minister also called upon the US to devise a strategy if a humanitarian crisis broke out triggered by a feared halt in international help to Afghanistan.
“There will be far-reaching consequences in terms of the refugee problem, which Pakistan and Iran will feel more as they have taken more number of refugees,” he cautioned.
Khan stressed that the US has a big role to play as it was there in Afghanistan for 20 years.
The only reason the US invaded Afghanistan was terrorism, he said, adding, “What would be the achievement if Afghan soil becomes a place for terrorists again? We should not let Afghanistan drift towards another crisis.”
Khan also said he was deeply hurt by the remarks of US senators against Pakistan over the Afghan debacle.
“Pakistan is the country that gave the greatest number of sacrifices for the US in its war (against terrorism). We were asked to become part of this coalition when Pakistan had nothing to do with 9/11 as there wasn’t any Pakistani involved. We had no reason to enter the war,” he said.
Khan said it was painful to see the US making Pakistan a scapegoat for its failures.
Rejecting allegations that Pakistan helped the Taliban in the fight against US forces, he said, “If we believe this is the case, it means Pakistan is stronger than the US and the whole of the Europeans.”
Khan underlined that the Taliban were a reality now and the world didn’t have a choice except to incentivise them for a stable country.
“The international community must encourage them to walk this path and hopefully it will lead to peace,” he said, adding that around 75 per cent of the Afghanistan’s budget is through aid, and if this monetary assistance is stopped, the country will fall.
PTI
