In a statement, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he believes US President Joe Biden was targeted with "unfair criticism" over troops withdrawal from Afghanistan and termed his decision as the most sensible thing to do. In an interview to Russian broadcaster RT, Khan said he wasn't sure whether the US had any coherent policy on what they were going to do in the war-ravaged country. "There will be far-reaching consequences in terms of the refugee problem, which Pakistan and Iran will feel more as they have taken more number of refugees," he cautioned.
Khan had, two days back, expressed displeasure at the US president's reluctance to contact him since coming into office in January this year. During an interview to CNN on Wednesday from his private Bani Gala residence in Islamabad, Khan admitted that he had not spoken to President Biden since the collapse of the Afghan government. When asked why Biden hadn't called him since coming into office, the premier curtly said: "He is a busy man" and later said Biden should be asked "why he is too busy to call". Khan’s remarks came days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Congressional hearing indicated that Pakistan was involved in harbouring members of the Taliban, including the militants of the dreaded Haqqani Network.
“I think you are very right to point at the role that Pakistan has played throughout the past 20 years and even before it. It is one that has involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan. It is one that's involved harbouring members of the Taliban, including the Haqqanis," Blinken said while responding to a specific question from Democratic Congressman Bill Keating who alleged that Pakistan played an active and by so many accounts a negative role in Afghan affairs for decades.
