The Prime Minister Office on Wednesday said the statement of Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to Iran on the use of Pakistani soil has been largely taken ‘out of context’, adding that linking it to any other context is an effort to misinterpret the expression which does not serve the country in any way.
“There has been a lot of debate about prime minister’s statement on use of Pakistani soil. The statement has been largely taken out of context,” a clarification /statement issued by the PM Office said. “Prime Minister Imran Khan was talking about non state actors using Pakistani soil under foreign influence to carry out activities in Pakistan or coordinating from Pakistan, case in point is Kulbushan Jadev/alike and local facilitators,” the statement said. “In the same manner, Pakistan is attacked using soil of Iran and Afghanistan,” it added.
“The same was clearly stated by the prime minister during his visit to Iran while referring to latest incident in Balochistan. That is why the prime minister is making all out efforts for peace across the whole region,” the statement continued. “Prime Minister’s statement being linked to any other context is an effort to misinterpret the expression which doesn’t serve Pakistan in any way,” it concluded.
A day earlier, the National Assembly session was marred by rumpus on Tuesday as lawmakers belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) shouted at each other over what opposition said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘public acknowledgement’ in Tehran that terrorists had in the past misused Pakistani territory to carry out attacks in Iran. The PML-N termed Imran Khan’s comment ‘dangerous’ and maintained that the prime minister had also given a similar statement during an interview to the New York Times.
