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Khawaja Saad Rafique hits back at Richard Grenell over silence on Gaza

News Desk

Dec 26

Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Saad Rafique has hit back at United States (US) President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Envoy for Special Missions, Richard Grenell, over his persistent social media posts advocating for the release of the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan.

 

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Rafique called out Grenell over his hypocrisy, saying, “His [Richard Grenell] conscience has been sleeping since the 2018 election theft to the dark period of political revenge and long imprisonment of opposition leaders.”

 

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The PML-N leader, who remained imprisoned during Imran Khan's tenure, reminded Grenell that the elected government of former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan was overthrown by the “collusion of the establishment, the judiciary and Imran Khan's party.”

 

Former Railways and Aviation Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique lambasted the Special Envoy over his stance on the carnage of Palestinians. “His [Grenell] dead conscience on the genocide of the Palestinians is still with the usurper and aggressive Zionists. Their conscious wakes up only to fulfill imperial ambitions. It has nothing to do with humanity, justice, democracy and the rule of law,” he added.

 

Doubting Grenell's demand to release former premier Imran Khan, Rafique pointed out that the close confidant of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump had some other goals.

 

“We know very well that you will try to put pressure on Pakistan to break the China bloc and surround Iran. You have done this before, but the Lord of the Universe has kept us safe and strong. May Allah be with us,” he wrote. 

 

Following the crackdown of Pakistan security forces on PTI demonstrators on November 26 in Islamabad, former US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell initially posted on his account on X in favour of Imran Khan, writing, “Free Imran Khan!”. However, he did not receive much attention at that time.

 

Grenell was discussed in Pakistan politics on December 15, when Trump appointed him as his Special Envoy for Global Missions in his administration. His social media posts then were amplified by PTI supporters.

 

Grenell's posts have veered towards what can be called trolling, social media behaviour not usually displayed by diplomats. He has been retweeting PTI's Shehbaz Gill, and many of his talking points seem to have much in common with the party. 

 

However, Khawaja Saad Rafique was not the only political leader who reacted to Grenell's social media post focusing on Imran Khan’s release.

 

Advisor to PM Rana Sanaullah, while appearing in the Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath, said, “We will not work under pressure of Donald Trump [...] if any intervention is made then we would consider it as interference in our sovereignty.”

 

Grenell talked to US media outlet Newsmax on Wednesday, stating, “There are a lot of the same allegations just like President Trump, where the ruling party put him in prison and created some sort of corruption allegations and false allegations.”

 

Meanwhile, many of Pakistan's biggest opposition party leaders, including Zartaj Gul and Aliya Hamza, welcomed the statements from Richard Grenell.

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