Afghans have broken 'shackles of slavery': Pak PM Imran Khan

The longstanding war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Kabul before entering the city and took over the presidential palace, forcing embattled President Ashraf Ghani to join fellow citizens and foreigners to flee the country. 

Khan made these remarks while addressing a ceremony to launch the first phase of the Single National Curriculum (SNC) from Grade 1 to 5, which was part of the manifesto of his ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. 

He spoke on how the parallel education system led to the existence of ''English medium'' schools, resulting in the adoption of ''someone else's culture'' in Pakistan. 

"When you adopt someone's culture you believe it to be superior and you end up becoming a slave to it," he said, adding that it creates a system of mental salves that is worse than the actual slavery. 

In the same breath, he indirectly likened the ongoing upheaval in Afghanistan with the people of the country breaking the "shackles of slavery''. 

Pakistan is accused of facilitating the Taliban rebellion which ultimately resulted in the capturing of the country after being ousted about 20 years ago. 

Khan said becoming a mental slave was worse than being an actual slave, adding that subjugated minds can never make big decisions. 

He said the SNC will lead the Pakistan youth towards "one direction and rid them of the invasion of foreign cultures". Officially Pakistan has maintained that it wanted a broad-based inclusive government in Afghanistan and was also hosting the Afghan leaders to create consensus for a peaceful transformation. 

Meanwhile, Khan launched the SNC despite criticism because it put emphasis on religious teaching instead of modern national sciences. All provinces agreed to introduce it except the Sindh province. He said that Pakistan is the "only country in the world" that is using three types of syllabuses in private schools, public schools and religious seminaries. 

He said he knew that bringing a uniform curriculum will be a difficult task as the "elite system will not allow this change". Khan, however, said that the process that has been started by his government was "irreversible".