Islamabad: Pakistan’s possible prime minister Imran Khan is not going to be any lenient towards India, close aides said.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won more seats than any other party in Wednesday’s general elections, hoping to form the next government.
The cricketer-turned politician has been harsh towards India be it the cricket ground or the politics.
He has been claiming that his party would liberate Kashmir from India after coming to power.
Addressing the Pakistan media, the PTI chief said he had grown up “hating India” due to the bloodshed and violence associated with the partition.
“I grew up hating India because I grew up in Lahore and there were massacres of 1947, so much bloodshed and anger. But as I started touring India, I got such love and friendship there that all this disappeared,” Khan said.
Weeks before the elections, he expressed dim hopes for breaking of ice between Pakistan and India, blaming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the deadlock in relations between the South Asian neighbours.
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Imran Khan lamented that the Indian premier’s “mindset” did not allow for negotiations between the two countries.
“Modi’s mindset does not allow for (the negotiations). I had told Modi (once), no matter what happens, the door for negotiations between India and Pakistan must never close,” he said.
PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said his party will not compromise on the Kashmir issue with India. “We want peace but will not bow before (Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi,” he maintained.
Imran Khan has other reasons too to be aggressive towards India amid widespread allegations that the military establishment supported him to win the polls.
Pakistan’s military has a longstanding policy over the Kashmir issue which every civilian government in the past adopted.
If he makes it to the Prime Minister’s House, there is no reason Imran Khan will not promote the military’s policy of ‘no compromise’ with India over the decades-old issues.
Analysts said Imran Khan will have to consider the international peace before locking horns with India.
“When you are in the opposition, you can say whatever you want but when you are head of the government, you have to be diplomatic. I don’t think Imran Khan would go too far (against India),” said one analyst.
Zahid Hamid, another analyst, said Imran Khan needed to form the government first. “I think he will form a weak government so he won’t be too aggressive,” he said.
