Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan Praises India's Fuel Price Cuts, Hails Independent Indian Foreign Policy

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday praised the Narendra Modi government's reduction of excise duty and used it to attack his country's current government that ousted him earlier this year in a no-confidence motion.

Sharing a social media post that said that India has reduced excise duty on fuel after importing discounted Russian oil, Khan said India managed to sustain the pressure from United States and its allies to provide relief to the Indian people and Khan was attempting something similar as prime minister but was stopped.  

Khan said, "Despite being part of the Quad, India sustained pressure from the US and bought discounted Russian oil to provide relief to the masses. This is what our government was working to achieve with the help of an independent foreign policy."

Prior to his ouster in April, Khan had alleged that there was a conspiracy against him by the country's then Opposition parties and a foreign power that did not like Khan's independent foreign policy. Khan cited a letter that the country's Foreign Office allegedly received from one of Pakistan's missions abroad, in which it was described that the host country had warned that relations with Pakistan would suffer if Khan remained prime minister. 

Khan declared the no-confidence motion against him a foreign conspiracy and he and his party have declared the current government, which brought the trust vote against him earlier this year as Opposition parties, as imported and a foreign-planted.

Khan said on Saturday, "For our government, Pakistan's interest was supreme but unfortunately the local Mir Jafars and Mir Sadiqs bowed to external pressure forcing a regime change, and are now running around like a headless chicken with the economy in a tailspin."

Mir Jafar and Mir Sadiq are historical Indian personalities who betrayed their kings against the British and are often invoked when one talks of traitors. Khan had called his political opponents with these names earlier as well.

This is not the first time Khan has praised the Indian government to hit at his domestic political opponents. Earlier in March, Khan praised the Indian foreign policy when reports of Indian import of Russian oil amid Western pressure emerged.

Khan said at the time, "I applaud our neighbouring country India. They have always had an independent foreign policy. India is in an alliance with the United States in Quad and yet it’s buying Russian oil despite sanctions. This is because Indian foreign policy is in the interest of Indian people."

Earlier this year, Khan also compared the Western reaction to India and Pakistan, saying that while foreign envoys wrote a letter to the Pakistani government, they did not do anything similar to India.

He said at the time, "EU ambassadors wrote a letter to Pakistan, asking us to issue an anti-Russia statement. I ask EU ambassadors ‘did you write that letter to India as well?’”

This letter was issued after Khan's visit to Russia just as Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine. Khan named the United States as the foreign country ousting him in an apaprent slip of tongue at a rally earlier this year, which he said was angry with this visit to Russia and pursuit of an independent foreign policy. The US as well as the Khan's political opponents in Pakistan denied all of the allegations.