Imran Khan Interview With FOX News on 12 July 2022. Full Transcript

 Imran Khan Interview With FOX News on 12 July 2022.  Full Transcript

I was expecting to be jailed this week but uh my lawyers really put up a great fight  but I have no doubt that it's a question of time whether it's on Monday or some other deal next week I'm convinced they're going to put me in jail because every day I have more cases registered against me now  I think I've broken a world record that I have no 180 cases and and increasing by the day and unfortunately there's right now we have we are facing law of the Jungle.

 This is unprecedented that not just that there are 180 cases against me but uh most of my senior leadership is in jail the only way they can come out is if they're announced that they are part of my party that's the only way they come out and almost 10 000 workers of mine are in jail right now going through the worst sort of situation people who you know who are my ticket holders who have given tickets to contest the elections they are being forced to to uh to leave my party otherwise they get their houses are broken and I mean this is all uh common knowledge that's been going on for over a month the houses get broken and their families are if they and they are all in hiding so their relatives are picked up young boys have been picked up.

 

 They're women so it's a we are facing the worst sort of persecution uh it's never been done this sort of thing has never been done in Pakistan to political workers so it's a matter of time  you know I expect maybe Monday maybe a few days later but I don't see being out of jail for long.

 

 Well definitely uh ex-army chief he engineered the whole thing uh you know he used the intelligence agencies to break my party members and also our allies so it was a coalition government and this is at a time when a government economically was performing the best any government has performed in the past 17 years and this is despite two years of covid-19 and when our government was considered internationally to be the top three governments that coped the best with the covid-19 pandemic.

 

 so he engineered the whole thing to get an extension and he then joined hands with the current prime minister who was facing corruption cases he was under trial at the time and they engineered this thing and where did the U.S come in they fed the U.S uh this this bit that I was anti-American I'm talking about the Army chief he actually had a lobbyist  who was paid by my government without my knowledge who was lobbying in the U.S to say how anti-American Imran Khan was and how Pro American the Army Chief was.

 

 So yes there was the U.S interference came in when they're under Secretary of State spoke to ambassador 6th March 22 and the Ambassador then sends me the cipher which says that ambassador sends me the cipher which says that unless I the Prime Minister Imran Khan is removed in a vote of no confidence there would be consequences for Pakistan.

 

 And then the board of no confidence was stable the next day and then within weeks my government left.

 

 But we now realized that it was engineered by our army Chief rather than engineered from Washington but that's what we think well look let me first uh clarify what my position on foreign policy is look Pakistan's foreign policy must be for the people of Pakistan and why because 100 million pakistanis are vulnerable 50 million below the poverty line and 50 million just above it so when I came to power I specifically spoke about how we were going to try and lift our people out of poverty now in doing so you have to have a foreign policy that is basically non-aligned like India.

 

 Now India for instance they trade with China they bought Russian oil at discounted price yet they are partners with the U.S one of the most strategic partnership they have in the quad with the U.S because India their governments are concerned about their vast number of poor people in India the level of poverty same as the case with Pakistan so my idea was not to be anti-anygovernment my idea was that I should my concern the people elected me to help them get out of poverty.

 

 Now we were involved in two conflicts we joined the U.S Jihad against the Soviets in the 80s and then in after 9 11. We again joined the U.S war on terror both these conflicts took a heavy Tour on Pakistan the 80s one left five million refugees in Pakistan kleshnikovs drugs flowing in militant groups and we suffered from all that the consequences.

 

Then after 9 11 we joined the U.S war on terror 80 000 pakistanis died they were killed in that war and then over a hundred billion dollars were lost to the economy so if my concern are the 100 million vulnerable people of Pakistan then the best way is to stay out of conflicts big Partners.

 In peace we played our part in trying to get the Taliban and the U.S on across the table and we were responsible Pakistan my government was responsible in the Doha talks but to be part of any conflicts I think we just cannot afford it so more like the Indian foreign policy I think the whole of one war was a mistake you know.

 

 If you know the history of Afghanistan they do not accept foreign Invaders whether it was a superpower Britain in the 19th century or the Soviets in the 20th century or in the U.S going into Afghanistan if they if the target was Osama bin Laden then after Osama Bin Laden was taken out they should have left or if it was uh I never understood the aims of the upon by the way Afghan  Venture by the U.S.

 

I never understood that what did they want to achieve from it it if it was to install democracy there well it wasn't going to happen through the barrel of a gun. If it was to liberate the Aran women never in human history has another country come to liberate someone's women.

  I so if it was just from what I could understand it was to Osama Bin Laden was the terrorist and they thought that Taliban were harboring him so when the Taliban government was removed they should have they should have left because the longer the state the more the resistance started building up because it's in the Afghan nature to resist foreigners it's it's their history so and yet there was no clear aim what was what was Victory going to be in Afghanistan.

  

 So  to answer your question in the end I didn't think Joe Biden had much option left I mean they had to withdraw from Afghanistan sometime or the other the only problem was the way the withdrawal took place now I again don't blame Joe Biden because he wasn't supposed to know that Ashraf Ghani would take off in the middle of the night the president would leave the country.

 

And the moment he left the country the whole of an army collapsed by the way one Army was already collapsing so no one was expected to.

  Biden wasn't expected to know that there were 300 000 Afghan Army would just collapse and that the president would take off because all of us we sitting in Pakistan thought there would be a civil war there would be you know 300 000 of one Army would it would take a long time.

  

I when I met president Trump he I mean this was almost two years before the what happened  in Kabul I mean perhaps president Trump thought that the Afghan government would last six months after the withdrawal but no one expected that the way it would it collapsed and so because it collapsed in the way it did the whole withdrawal became chaotic and no one was expecting it.

And then the airport scenes and I think President Biden actually got a lot of flack but you know if that had happened two years later for instance if two years later they had were drawn and if the president had fled uh as uh as Ashraf Ghani did the same thing would have happened two years later so I think you know he couldn't have predicted the collapse of the Iran army and the president leaving the country