Imran has divided the nation: Pak Defence Minister

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has slammed former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for continuing the "politics of hate and intolerance", which he said has divided the whole nation and inflicted damage that might never go away.

Asif said Imran Khan's politics and narrative based on "hate" against all those who are against him has inflicted a great damage.

"Imran Khan only divided Pakistanis, not only in Pakistan but also in abroad. That is why a person in Canada abuses us. He did not even leave the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) mosque," said the Defence Minister while speaking at the floor of the National Assembly.

"He (Imran Khan) spreads hate everywhere. He could not give love to his blood relatives, how can he give love to this nation," Asif asked.

Referring to the incident at Majid-e-Nabvi, where PML-N and other political leaders were hurled with abuses and physically assaulted by supporters of Imran Khan, Asif said, "People involved in the incident in Masjid-e-Nabvi were mostly British citizens. There are wealthy people from different countries. Their loyalties are shared."

"I respect them but they should not damage the country they were born in," he said.

Imran Khan is also facing criticism for spreading a false narrative of a US-led regime change, through which his government was ousted from power, while on the other hand his party attempts to do damage control with Washington.

Pakistan President Arif Alvi recently gave a presidential protocol to the new US Ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome, when he welcomed him in a grand way as Blome took office in Islamabad.

As President Alvi is from Imran Khan's political party PTI, the ministers in the Shehbaz Sharif government have slammed the party for playing a double game of spreading false anti-US narrative and at the same time welcoming the US Ambassador with a presidential protocol.

"It was President Alvi who refused to administer the oath of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and said that his conscience did not allow him to accept Sharif as Prime Minister because he was brought into power following a US-led regime change conspiracy. Now the same President welcomes the Ambassador from the same country, which allegedly kicked Imran Khan, chairman of Alvi's party, out of power," said Kamran Shahid, senior political analyst.

"I wonder which conscience of the President allowed him to do this," Shahid added.