General Bajwa asked me to condemn Russian invasion of Ukraine: Imran Khan

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has said General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had asked him to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine soon after his return from Moscow, Geo News reported.

Khan was quoted in the report as saying, "I talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin about procurement of oil at cheaper rates but when I returned to Pakistan, the chief of army staff asked me to condemn Russia's attack on Ukraine."

Khan said he advised Bajwa to stay neutral on India.

The former army chief, however, started condemning Russia him, the former PM added.

"A grade-22 officer made a foreign policy statement during a seminar to please the US," he said.

He went on to say that the country will have to face the consequences when decisions are made to please Washington, the Dawn reported.

In the bid to please the United States, 80,000 people got killed in the war on terror, Khan claimed in the Geo News report.

Khan, who was ousted from his post in April last year, recently took a swipe at Bajwa saying that the former army chief had told the US that the PTI chief was anti-American.

He made the remark during an interview with US-based international radio broadcaster, Voice of America, aired on last Saturday, and a separate televised address on Sunday, according to Dawn.

"Whatever happened, now as things unfold, it wasn't the US who told Pakistan [to oust me]. It was unfortunately, from what evidence has come up, [former army chief] Gen [Qamar Javed] Bajwa who somehow managed to tell the Americans that I was anti-American. And so, it [the plan to oust me] wasn't imported from there. It was exported from here to there," Khan told VoA.

Khan, who continuously blamed the US for his resignation as prime minister, took a U-turn from his earlier claim in the VoA interview.

Meanwhile, in his televised address, Khan termed General Bajwa, who retired in November last year, a 'super king', conceding that he was like a puppet in his three-and-a-half-year stint in the Prime Minister's Office.

"Gen Bajwa had become an expert in everything, including economy, politics, and foreign policy," Khan said.

"Gen Bajwa used to get the credit for good decisions and Imran Khan used to serve as a punching bag for every wrong decision," Khan claimed, alleging that the former army chief was responsible for the "political and economic ills" that the country faces today.

He also slammed Bajwa for hampering the process of accountability, claiming that the former army chief had already decided that there won't be any questions from PM Shehbaz Sharif.(ANI)