Rajat Sharma, editor-in-chief and chairman, India TV
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, his ministers and army generals were present in Pak Occupied Kashmir on August 14 to express their solidarity over the Kashmir issue, but the tone and tenor of the Pakistani PM was disturbing. Imran Khan alleged that India was planning another strike inside POK similar to the one at Balakot after the suicide terror attack in Pulwama.
"The information that we have is that they (India) have made a more sinister program to divert the world's attention from what they are doing in Kashmir" - this was a desperate Pakistani Prime Minister speaking, after the international community snubbed his country's efforts to raise the issue of abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir. Imran Khan vowed that he and his army would fight "till the end" if attacked.
The Pakistani army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa also spoke on more or less similar lines. This reflects the desperation of the Pakistani civilian and military leadership. They are desperately trying to boost the sagging morale of the separatists and terrorists in Kashmir.
India TV on Wednesday showed video clips of common Pakistani citizens expressing their anger against Imran Khan and his government because of runaway inflation in the prices of essential commodities and mounting debts that his country is facing. The Pakistani Prime Minister is not being trusted by his own countrymen who had voted for his party in the general elections.
Imran Khan is carrying on with the facade of "solidarity with Kashmiris", but is unwilling to listen to the woes of Pakistanis. He has been going to the IMF, World Bank, China and Arab countries with a begging bowl, seeking loans to bail out his country's deteriorating economy.
One thing to note is that whenever Pakistan gets loans and grants from other countries, it channelizes a large chunk of it to fund terrorists who have been lodged in training camps across the Line of Control. It is because of this dubious reputation that most of the developed countries of the world now distrust Pakistan's claims of "combating" terrorism.
Soon after coming to power, Imran Khan blatantly copied Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies. He initiated an austerity plan for his government and cut expenditure, launched a scheme on the lines of "Swachhata Abhiyan", distributed LED bulbs just as Modi did, and tried to copy several other schemes that were implemented by Modi government in India.
It is easy to copy Modi's popular schemes, but it requires unlimited courage to take hard decisions like Modi took while okaying the IAF air strike on Balakote, and revoking Article 370. Imran Khan clearly lacks courage. This is the reason why he is crying wolf about another impending Indian strike.
The most interesting part is that most of the Pakistani leaders are nowadays talking about war, and that too, at a time when their government is unable to feed its poor.
