Pro-Peace
Imran Khan has remained a vocal supporter of peace and the resolution of conflict through dialogue, not arms. Khan believes in the provision of democratic rights and human rights to all as a basis for avoidance of conflict, and that peace is not about winning wars “but to win the hearts and minds of the people.
- Khan condemned the multiple fatal terrorist attacks of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and strongly supported seeking the pursuit of dialogue to initiate peace with the Taliban.
- An Indian Airforce pilot downed and captured during an aerial skirmish with Pakistan Airforce in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in February 2019 was returned to India without penalty by the Khan administration as a “peace gesture” to India.
- In the US/Afghan Taliban conflict, Khan maintained from the outset that dialogue was the only solution despite general opposition to this view. He played a key role in facilitating dialogue between the Taliban and the US to try and support a peaceful settlement and increase prospects of regional stability. In August 2021, after over 20 years, US troops withdrew from Afghanistan. The Khan administration facilitated the urgent and safe evacuation of many international diplomats and workers from Afghanistan through Pakistan.
- In October 2019, as Prime Minister, Khan initiated and conducted peace talks in Tehran between longstanding adversaries Iran and Saudi Arabia.
- In another peace gesture welcomed especially by the Sikh community worldwide, the Khan Administration permitted access to one of the holiest Sikh sites, the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan, close to the Pakistan-Indian border.
- Imran Khan presented a resolution to combat Islamophobia at the 47th session of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council in 2020. The UN General Assembly then adopted, by consensus, a resolution introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the OIC, proclaiming March 15th as International Day to Combat Islamophobia, stating it was aiming to promote a culture of tolerance and peace globally.
Leader of Global South
- As prime minister, Imran Khan pledged to allow the people of Kashmir the right to independence if they were to vote to join Pakistan in a UN mandated plebiscite that has been delayed for decades.
- Defining the occupation of Palestine by Israel as illegal, as Prime Minister, he spoke at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2020 and reiterated that Pakistan continues to support a two-state solution, in line with the UN General Assembly and the Security Council resolutions. Imran Khan continues to speak out against the genocide from prison.
- Khan helped reverse the Sri Lankan “Anti-Muslim” COVID-19 Cremation Order. He intervened diplomatically during a visit to Sri Lanka, addressing the extreme distress the cremation order was causing Sri Lankan Muslims, since Islam requires burial and prohibits cremation of the deceased.
- During his time as Prime Minister of Pakistan, a 96% Muslim majority country, Khan’s administration opened the Shawala Teja Singh Temple for worship, 72 years after it was sealed in 1947.
- Imran Khan is a pacificist who has remained vocal as an anti-war and pro dialogue/peace advocate. In one of many similar vocalizations, when Khan spoke to the Saudi media as Prime Minister in an interview regarding the Saudi Yemen conflict, he stated, “I feel that every conflict has a political solution. I am not a believer in a military solution.”
- In October 2012, Imran Khan led an anti-drone march into the dangerous tribal area of Waziristan, despite suicide bombing threats made to the demonstration by the Pakistani Taliban.