Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan praised India’s Narendra Modi when comparing him with Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief Nawaz Sharif — and not in favour of the latter.
In a video widely shared online, Khan can be heard saying: “No other leader in the world except Nawaz has properties worth billions abroad…Even in our neighboring country, how many properties does PM Modi have outside India?”
Sharif was removed from power in 2017 over corruption allegations, and Khan was elected prime minister the following year.
In December 2018, Sharif was fined $25 million and jailed for seven years over his family’s ownership of steel mills in Saudi Arabia, in what is widely known as the Al-Azizia Steel Mills case. Earlier the same year, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for owning property in London, but was later freed from custody pending an appeal.
Sharif has denied the charges, insisting that the cases brought against him were “politically motivated.”
This is not the first time Khan has lauded Narendra Modi publicly: in April, Khan praised India’s independent foreign policy and Narendra Modi in particular for continuing oil imports from Russia, despite pressure and threats from Western governments.
“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,” Imran Khan tweeted in April.
The 60-year-old former head of government has slammed the US government on multiple occasions, maintaining that Washington didn’t want Pakistan to have an independent foreign policy and arguing that is why he was ousted from power in April.
