Independent foreign policy crucial as Pakistan suffered due to ‘dependency syndrome’: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday stressed the importance of an independent foreign policy, saying that Pakistan could not touch its peak potential due to ‘dependency syndrome’ on other powerful nations.

“A county without an independent foreign policy remains unable to secure the interests of its people,” the prime minister said while addressing the Islamabad Security Dialogue.

The two-day event gathered intelligentsia from across the country besides representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, China, Russian and European Union.

The prime minister began his address by highlighting the importance of the event, saying: “In our minds, security was defined as military might,” adding that it was, in fact, “multi-dimensional”.

PM Imran regretted the fact that many were unable to understand the concept of Riyasat-i-Madina. “They think that I talk about Riyasat-i-Madina to garner votes and use Islam for political purposes,” he said.

Commenting on the state of Madina, he called it a “unique” model where the people were uplifted to become a great civilisation. “This is a part of history, not mythology,” he said, adding that this model was the very definition of national security.

“They proved that when a nation takes care of its weakest people, which is real security […] security follows when every citizen owns their country,” he said, adding that the military could only give you “limited security”.

The prime minister also held the absence of rule of law as the reason behind the country’s insecurity, stating that no country could truly progress or reach its potential without it. He noted how the same was enforced in the state of Madina.

PM Imran further said taking independent decision while keeping high the interests of nation was extremely important rather than submitting to the will of other countries in exchange of foreign aid.

He said a nation could not progress until it kept thinking that it could not survive without foreign aid and criticized the decisions of previous governments for joining the alien wars, namely the Afghan Jihad and the post 9/11 war on terror. “These decisions, that incurred major damage to Pakistan, were made for the sake of dollars,” he said.

He pointed out that such detrimental policies resulted in sectarian militancy that disrupted the environment of investment, and promoted drug rackets and black money in the country.

“We sacrificed our own country for the benefit of another. That is why I believe that a country without an independent foreign policy does not have any respect in the world and cannot protect the interests of its people,” he added.

He regretted that no independent evaluation was made afterwards to assess the damage suffered by the Pakistani society, and said “the elite filled up their bank accounts at the cost of the nation”.

The premier said his government during four years pursued an independent foreign policy that helped the country gain respect in global arena. He pointed out said a “powerful country” had expressed displeasure over his recent visit to Russia.

“How come a country can interfere into the affairs of an independent State,” he said. “However, not to blame them, as it is our fault because we gave them this impression”.

“Today, I read the Britain foreign secretary’s statement that they can’t say anything to India as it has an independent foreign policy. So what are we then?” he asked, adding that the blame lay with us.