’We never tried to oppress the media’: Imran Khan

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in his interview with The Guardian spoke at length about media freedom during his time as prime minister, forced disappearance in Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

‘We never tried to oppress the media’: Khan

“In my time, we never tried to oppress the media. The only problem was that sometimes the … security agencies — three or four times we found out that picked someone up and immediately when we found out we would immediately have them released,” said Khan.

They [security people] were responsible for picking up people: Khan

“They [security forces] were responsible for picking up people, but according to them they were involved in this insurgency, which was going on in Balochistan and the tribal area bordering Afghanistan. So they would blame that, with some justification, because you could not convict terrorists in the courts because you wouldn’t get witnesses,” said Khan while speaking about forced disappearances and missing persons.

Eventually Afghan women, the Afghan people, will assert their rights: Imran Khan

“Eventually Afghan women, the Afghan people, will assert their rights. They are strong people,” he said. “But if you push the Taliban from the outside, knowing their mindset, they will just put up defences. They just hate outside interference,” said Khan about Afghanistan.