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Imran Khan Address National Radio Conference at Gold Coast
PAKISTANI cricketer turned
politician Imran Khan said that Australian cricket team would have been safe
from terrorist attacks if it had gone to Pakistan, as terrorists knew that such
an attack would have lost them public sympathy.
The Lion of Lahore, who is in Gold Coast as the plenary speaker for the
Australia’s National Radio Conference, said Cricket Australia's reluctance on
security grounds to send the team to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy, which
was partly responsible for the tournament being indefinitely postponed, while
allowing a tour of India to go ahead, caused great resentment in the country.
In his address chairman Tehreek e Insaf Pakistan, Mr. Imran Khan said that more
than 1300 people have been killed this year in a string of bombings by
insurgents, including last month's destruction of the Marriott hotel in
Islamabad, which killed 60, and Thursday's attack on the heavily fortified
headquarters of the anti-terrorist squad in the same city. Pakistani politician
and cricket great Imran Khan says his country is heading towards anarchy because
of the war on terror.
Addressing the 2008 National Radio Conference on the Gold Coast on Friday, Imran
Khan said Pakistan was experiencing increasing suicide bomb attacks and
instability since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
He compared Pakistan's current situation to that of Cambodia during the Vietnam
War.
"Cambodia had nothing to do with the Vietnam War but the Americans at that time
blamed the Cambodians for sending insurgents into Vietnam," Khan said.
"They ended up bombing Cambodia, the bombing destabilised Cambodia, a vacuum
developed and that vacuum was filled by Pol Pot, a million Cambodians died and
they had nothing to do with it.
"If there is not a change of strategy right now Pakistan is heading in the same
direction."
Imran Khan, who played for the Pakistani cricket team from 1971 to 1992, founded
the Movement for Justice political party in 1996 and has served over five years
as an elected politician. He said it was an exciting time for the country thanks
to the introduction of independent radio and television stations, which built
public support for an independent judiciary and was leading towards a general
democracy. But Khan said if the US did not change its strategy in the Middle
East, Pakistan could spiral into anarchy.
"We again have rising suicide attacks, the Pakistan economy is already in a
meltdown situation and if these terrorist attacks keep going there is no
question of Pakistan recovering from this," he said.
"The instability will grow and the country will head towards anarchy.
"If this strategy continues it's a disaster. Not just for Pakistan - a
destabilised Pakistan is a disaster for the whole region.
"A hundred and sixty million people destabilised in nuclear Pakistan is in no
one's interest."
Imran Khan said the US should consider where the Taliban in was getting its
funding and what were their motivations in Afghanistan.
"It has to be analysed who are these Taliban, because the sort of money they
have got, it's not possible they are generating it themselves and it's not even
possible that it's opium cultivation that's bringing in this money," he said.
"In my opinion the Russians are pouring in money, the Chinese are pouring in
money, and it's also coming from Iran.
"All of them want the US to be stuck in Afghanistan and bleed like the Soviets
bled in Afghanistan."
Talking about his upcoming bid for power in the next Pakistani elections, Imran
Khan told Radio Conference delegates today: “In cricket I was successful because
I believed I could win, it’s the same with politics… nothing is impossible.”
