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Pakistan’s Imran Khan says world should give Taliban ‘time’ on human rights but fears ‘chaos’ without aid


Chatting with CNN from his personal Bani Gala residence in Islamabad on Wednesday, Khan spoke about enduring what he perceived as a “horrible” relationship with the USA that has been disastrous for Pakistan and the way he’s now in search of a extra pragmatic strategy in coping with Afghanistan’s new leaders.

It was the Prime Minister’s first interview with a world information group for the reason that Taliban took management of neighboring Afghanistan final month, following the whole US withdrawal of troops.

“The Taliban maintain all of Afghanistan and if they’ll type of now work in the direction of an inclusive authorities, get all of the factions collectively, Afghanistan might have peace after 40 years. But when it goes flawed and which is what we’re actually anxious about, it might go to chaos. The most important humanitarian disaster, an enormous refugee downside,” Khan mentioned.

Khan claimed that the Taliban are in search of worldwide support to keep away from a disaster, which could possibly be used to push the group in “the proper course in the direction of legitimacy.” Nevertheless he warned that Afghanistan couldn’t be managed by outdoors forces.

“No puppet authorities in Afghanistan is supported by the folks,” he mentioned. “So moderately than sitting right here and pondering that we are able to management them, we must always incentivize them. As a result of Afghanistan, this present authorities, clearly feels that with out worldwide support and assist, they won’t be able to cease this disaster. So we must always push them in the proper course.”

Even earlier than the Taliban’s return to energy, protracted battle, poverty, back-to-back droughts, financial decline and the coronavirus pandemic had worsened an already dire state of affairs through which 18 million Afghans — nearly half of the inhabitants — have been in want of support, in keeping with United Nations businesses.

To critics who say the Taliban will destabilize the nation, Khan pointed to the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1989, which resulted in a “massacre.” Khan mentioned he was anticipating an analogous massacre to occur after the US forces left.

“Our intelligence businesses instructed us that the Taliban wouldn’t be capable to take over all of Afghanistan, and in the event that they tried to take Afghanistan militarily, there could be a protracted civil battle, which is what we have been frightened of as a result of we’re those who would endure essentially the most,” Khan mentioned. Now, he mentioned, the world ought to “give them time” to kind a official authorities and make good on their guarantees.

CNN's Becky Anderson interviewed Imran Khan on Wednesday.

Girls in authorities

Since assuming energy, the militant group has tried to burnish its worldwide credentials, with guarantees to uphold human rights, significantly concerning ladies and women, and permit journalists to proceed with their work.

Nevertheless, ladies have been omitted from the Taliban’s hard-line interim government, have been ordered to stay at home in some areas, and their schooling restricted. Protests in opposition to Taliban rule and for civil rights have been violently suppressed, with experiences of journalists being arrested and severely crushed.

“It is a mistake to suppose that somebody from outdoors will give Afghan ladies rights. Afghan ladies are robust. Give them time. They may get their rights,” mentioned Khan.

“Girls ought to have the flexibility in a society to meet their potential in life,” mentioned Khan. “In Pakistan, what we’ve executed is we’ve really paid stipends to poor households to get the women to check at school as a result of we really feel that if the women, if the woman little one research, if they’ve schooling, they may get their very own rights,” he mentioned.

Nevertheless, many within the worldwide neighborhood will not be hopeful the Taliban will make any progress on upholding ladies’s rights. The Taliban, who dominated over Afghanistan from 1996 till 2001 however have been pressured from energy after the US-led invasion, have traditionally handled ladies as second-class residents, subjecting them to violence, pressured marriages and a near-invisible presence within the nation.

The group banned ladies from the office, stopped them from leaving the house unaccompanied and compelled them to cowl their whole our bodies.

In current days the Taliban has mandated the segregation of genders in school rooms and mentioned feminine college students, lecturers and staff should put on hijabs in accordance with the group’s interpretation of Sharia legislation. A Taliban official introduced that ladies would not be permitted to play cricket and different sports activities. And Taliban fighters have used whips and sticks in opposition to ladies protesters, who’ve taken to the streets in sporadic protests throughout the nation demanding equal rights.
“In contradiction to assurances that the Taliban would uphold ladies’s rights, over the previous three weeks ladies have as a substitute been progressively excluded from the general public sphere,” UN human rights chief, Michele Bachelet said in Geneva on Monday.

US withdrawal

Khan has beforehand criticized the US’ exit from Afghanistan and mentioned he has not spoken with US President Joe Biden for the reason that Taliban takeover, regardless of Pakistan being a significant non-NATO ally.

“I’d think about he is very busy, however our relationship with the US isn’t just depending on a cellphone name, it must be a multidimensional relationship,” mentioned Khan.

That is one thing Khan does not really feel Pakistan loved through the US’ 20 yr battle in Afghanistan. “We (Pakistan) have been like a employed gun,” Khan mentioned. “We have been imagined to make them (the US) win the battle in Afghanistan, which we by no means might.”

Khan mentioned he repeatedly warned US officers that America couldn’t obtain its targets militarily, and would “be caught there.” He mentioned the US ought to have tried a political settlement with the Taliban from a “place of energy,” on the top of its presence in Afghanistan, not because it was withdrawing.

As a neighboring nation with deep cultural ties, the destiny of Pakistan is tethered to that of Afghanistan. Violence, political tumult and humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan all inevitably spill throughout the border. For Khan, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was disastrous for Pakistan.

In keeping with Khan, hundreds of Pakistanis misplaced their lives in terrorist assaults by militant teams owing to his nation’s help for the US. “Simply because we sided with the US, we turned an ally of the US after 9/11 and the battle in Afghanistan. The struggling this nation went by means of with at one level there have been 50 militant teams attacking our authorities… on high of it, they have to additionally know there have been 480 drone assaults by the US in Pakistan,” he added.

“Solely time a rustic has been attacked by its ally,” he mentioned of the US strikes.

The US has repeatedly accused Pakistan of harboring terrorists and given them secure haven, a declare Khan denies.

“What are these secure havens?” Khan requested. “The world of Pakistan alongside the border of Afghanistan had the heaviest surveillance by the USA drones … certainly they might have identified if there have been any secure havens?”

By not standing as much as the US, earlier Pakistani heads of state opened themselves as much as accusations of collaboration, Khan mentioned.

“The query is, was Pakistan ready to take navy motion in opposition to the Afghan Taliban when it was already being attacked from inside, from the Pakistani Taliban who have been attacking the state of Pakistan?” he mentioned.

Khan mentioned he “can not destroy my nation to do a combat another person’s battle.”

“The Afghan Taliban weren’t attacking us. I want if I used to be in authorities. I’d have instructed the US that we aren’t going to take them on militarily as a result of first, we’ve to serve the folks. My duty would have been to the folks of my nation,” Khan mentioned.

CNN’s Becky Anderson, Alireza Haji Hosseini and Zeena Saifi reported from Islamabad, and Helen Regan wrote from Hong Kong.



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