Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, spoke at a large rally on the eve of the country’s 75th anniversary of Independence. He praised India for having an independent foreign policy and for “taking a firm stand against the West, especially when the US was criticising India for buying Russian oil.”
This occurs at a time when the US has raised its concerns that an Indian company may have concealed the source of Russian oil while processing it and shipping some of the resulting products to New York.
Imran Khan spoke during the Lahore gathering where he played a video of S. Jaishankar, the Foreign Minister of India, speaking at the Bratislava Forum in Slovakia during his speech and commended him for resisting US pressure to purchase cheap oil from Russia.
Media outlets shared a video of Imran Khan’s remarks at the event, in which he said, “If India, which gained independence at the same time as Pakistan, and New Delhi can take a firm stand and make their foreign policy as per the need of their people, then who are they (the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif government) who are towing the line.”
Ex-PM Imran Khan played the video clip of External Affairs Minister Jaishankar saying, “Europe is buying gas from Russia and we will buy it as people in India need it.”
Imran Khan while praising India said, “this is what an independent country is (yeh hoti hai Azad Haqumat).”
