Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that taking action against his friend and colleague Jahangir Khan Tareen over the sugar scandal hurt him like dropping his cousin and former Pakistan cricketer Majid Khan from the team.
“These were two of the hardest decisions I ever had to make in my life,” he said while speaking to senior journalist Kamran Khan during a wide-ranging interview on Dunya News.
To a question regarding the inquiry into the sugar crisis, the premier said Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had “threatened Wajid Zia, warning him to stop whatever he was doing”. He said that it thought that the government would buckle if the sugar prices rose.
“I will fight the sugar mafia,” he added.
The PM noted that sugar sales in Punjab doubled in July but it emerged that it was being sent from Punjab to Sindh.
“The PTI is not in power in Sindh so they are hoarding sugar there,” he explained. “The Sharifs, the Zardaris, and many other politicians own sugar mills.”
“They can blackmail me as much as they want but I will not let off the hook unless and until they abide by the law,” the premier said, adding that the public institutions would make a decision on the sugar inquiry report.
He then mentioned his longtime friend Tareen, saying he “did the most with me in my struggle over the past seven to eight years”.
PM Imran also categorically denied that Pakistan would recognise Israel — a few days after the UAE established formal relations with Tel Aviv — stating that Islamabad won’t do so until Palestinians are not given their right to a “just settlement”.
“Whichever country wants to do it [recognise Israel], our stance is very clear. Our stance was cleared by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1947-48,” said PM Imran. “Which was that we will never recognise Israel till the Palestinians do not get their rights.”
He said that Pakistan will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel till the Palestinians do not get a separate state of their own, which the people of Palestine accept, based on the Two-Nation Theory.
The premier said that if Pakistan agreed to recognising Israel and gave up its principled stance then it will have to stop raising the issue of Kashmir as the situation in the disputed area was the same.
“Hence, Pakistan cannot recognise Israel,” he stated.
The premier said Karachi would have progressed if not for the ethnic politics of the 1980s.
Earlier today, Khawaja Izharul Hassan, a leader of the ruling PTI’s coalition partner, the MQM-P, had said a committee to resolve Karachi’s problems was not a solution.
It was reported late last week that the federal and Sindh governments had agreed on forming a committee comprising representatives of the city’s three main stakeholders — the ruling PTI, PPP, and the MQM-P — to address the metropolis’ longstanding civic issues.
In his comments today, the premier said looking at the port city in its current state was painful. “The MQM-P founder spread hatred among people [of Karachi] and divided them; he wreaked havoc in Karachi.”
“The situation in Karachi is dire,” he added.
He said he has approached the courts on the issue of local government system in Sindh.
“I intervene in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because we have the PTI’s government there,” the premier explained, adding that if the Centre intervened in Sindh, the provincial leadership “will make a fuss”.
“We are going to do whatever we can for Karachi,” he vowed.
Speaking about his political career, PM Imran said his “whole life had been spent in struggle”. “I was nine years old when I started this struggle,” he added.
“Those who do not know how to struggle falter,” the PM underlined.
Referring to the time he was voted into office, he said Pakistan was close to defaulting, the public institutions were destroyed and the rupee weakened.
“Depreciation of the rupee leads to inflation,” he said, adding that the government was paying instalments for the loans the rulers of the past had obtained.
He said that while he was attempting to make the country a welfare state, the elites gathered and are trying to overthrow the government.
With regard to power, the premier said electricity in Pakistan was costlier but sold at a cheaper rate, noting that “we are producing the most expensive electricity in the world”.
If electricity prices had not been revised upwards, the country would have had to take loans, he noted.
A comprehensive power policy is set to be introduced in a couple of weeks, he added.
Speaking of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the prime minister said many people talked about how he did not understand the crisis.
“Our party and the Opposition leaders kept saying that everything should be shut down during the corona [virus pandemic],” he noted. “A strict lockdown was imposed in Sindh; that was their [provincial government’s] right after the 18th Amendment.”
“We had to endure a month of criticism during corona,” he said. “I told Bill Gates that we saved our lower class by imposing a smart lockdown,” he added.
Referring to Pakistan’s anti-graft watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau, he said: “We’re not dictating [NAB’s actions].”
Speaking of the Opposition parties, the PM said their leaders had only one goal and that was to blackmail him. “Should I have given them NRO,” he asked rhetorically.
He said the Opposition parties wished to do away with clauses that would eventually bring an end to NAB. They were also blackmailing the government over legislation related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), he added.
Throwing a jibe at the PML-N vice-president, he noted that there was stone-pelting when Maryam Nawaz was going to NAB’s office in Lahore for an appearance.
“They go to the NAB as if Nelson Mandela is going to NAB.”
“We are strengthening the FIA [Federal Investigation Agency],” the prime minister said, adding that the accusation against the Punjab chief minister pertaining to alcohol licensing was a “joke”.
The chief executive of the biggest province, Punjab, was summoned over the alcohol licensing issue but excise department’s officials should have been called, he noted.
Summoning Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar led to suspicions, he lamented.
“Attacks are launched at Usman Buzdar and that makes me very sad,” he said. “He has become the chief minister for the first time and he is learning,” he said, adding that Punjab was making rapid progress.
