It’s not the first time Imran showed admiration for Osama

A day after the United States termed Pakistan as one of the “safe havens,” Prime Minister Imran Khan said in the national assembly that the Americans “martyred” Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. The Oxford-educated Khan seemed to be mourning the death of the ‘shaheed’ Osama.

“The way we helped America in the ‘war on terror’ and the humiliation that my country had to face! I don’t think there has ever been any other country that supported war on terror and had to face criticism from them. If they are not successful in Afghanistan, Pakistan is held responsible for that too. Openly,” Khan said.

Typically, everything he said is a lie. Pakistan supported the war on terror just like China stopped the spread of the novel coronavirus. Only the most obdurate Khan supporters, can say that, for it is a well-known fact that Pakistan is, as India recently said, “the nerve centre of terrorism.” It has been indoctrinating, training, and arming jihadists for decades to spread mayhem in India, Afghanistan, and other places. The role of ISI in fomenting trouble in the Indian subcontinent is well-documented.

Yet, Islamabad has the temerity to project itself as “the principal victim of terrorism.” In a recent statement, its Foreign Office said, “Pakistan has been the principal victim of terrorism, including terrorism perpetrated against our people from across the border.”

It is like the lament of the drug lord whose own children have become addicts. It’s true that the Pakistanis too suffer because of terrorists, but it is also true that these terrorists were birthed, incubated, and indoctrinated by successive regimes, both military and civil.

While Islamization of the country began right from the beginning, the process caught pace under Zia-ul-Haq. Arab money and American arms were used to carry out jihad against the Russians and Russian-backed leaders in Afghanistan. India was the collateral damage, with the Pakistanis supporting militancy first in Punjab and later in Kashmir.

Osama was among the prominent Mujahidin fighting against the Kabul regime. Another byproduct of the war in Afghanistan was the Taliban, who have emerged as the bane of Afghanistan; some of them have also became a problem for the Pakistani rulers.

Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Khan’s claim that his country is unnecessarily criticized doesn’t cut any ice. Prominent politicians have castigated him for his soft spot for Osama. Though they themselves have also supported Islamists in the past, they find Khan’s admiration for Osama worrisome. “Remember that Osama Bin Laden can be the PM’s hero but not the nation’s. He was and will remain a criminal of the state and the people,” Pakistan Peoples Party’s Senator and former federal minister Sherry Rehman said.

Former federal minister and Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Khawaja Asif was quoted by Dawn as saying that Osama “brought terrorism to our lands, he was a terrorist through and through and he [PM Khan] calls him shaheed!”

Such are the perils of sowing the winds..