WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Imran Khan concluded his three-day US visit and left for Pakistan.
Before leaving for the homeland, he spoke to the Pakistan Caucus at the Capitol Hill. Speaker US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, along with other congressmen and women, welcomed him.
Upon invitation of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Chairperson of the Congressional Pakistan Caucus, PM Khan had attended the reception by senators and members of US House of Representatives at the Capitol Hill.
In his address, the premier clarified that Pakistan fought a US war though it had nothing to do with the Nine Eleven and Al-Qaeda that was based in Afghanistan, then. However, he renewed the resolve to help US in finding the peaceful solution to 18-year old Afghan war.
PM Imran vowed to play a role and cooperate with the United States to achieve a political settlement with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan.
PM said: "The whole country is behind me, the Pakistani army and all security forces are behind me." He added, " Our objective is same as US right now; to find a peaceful solution as quickly as possible in Afghanistan.”
PM said that main objective of his US visit was to make the people in US have better understanding of Pakistan, adding, "Pakistan is misunderstood here, specifically in the last 15 years when the war on terror was being fought in Afghanistan and on the borders of Pakistan."
He said: "Our 70,000 people died in this war on terror and we had billions and billions of dollars lost to our economy. We were fighting US war as we had nothing to do with 9/11. Al-Qaida was in Afghanistan and there was no militant in Pakistan, then."
“It was partly a fault of previous Pakistani governments who did not apprise US of the actual situation. That in order to “Do More” & help US win this war, Pakistan was fighting for its own existence at that time,” said Khan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has thanked US President Donald Trump for his warm and gracious hospitality, his understanding of Pakistan's point of view and his wonderful way of putting entire delegation at ease.
Earlier after his White House meeting, PM Imran took to Twitter to say, “I want to thank President Trump for his warm and gracious hospitality, his understanding of Pakistan's point of view & his wonderful way of putting our entire delegation at ease. Appreciate the President taking out time to show us the historic White House private quarters.”
Khan went on to say “I want to assure President Trump Pakistan will do everything within its power to facilitate the Afghan peace process. The world owes it to the long-suffering Afghan people to bring about peace after 4 decades of conflict.”
Imran Khan was surprised by the reaction of India to President Trump's offer of mediation to bring Pakistan and India to dialogue table for resolving Kashmir conflict which has held subcontinent hostage for 70 years.
“Generations of Kashmiris have suffered & are suffering daily and need conflict resolution,” he added.
The Prime Minister also thanked the Pakistani-American community for showing up in such large numbers at Capital One Arena in DC to show support and welcome on first visit to the USA as PM of Pakistan.