ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Imran Khan categorically said that neither Pakistan would fight anyone’s war in future nor be treated like a hired gun because the country had paid its huge cost.

In an interview with TRT World, a Turkish television channel recorded during his visit and aired on Monday, the prime minister said instead of fixing its economy, Pakistan had developed a dependency syndrome on foreign aid.

He said from Afghan Jihad onward, Pakistan had paid huge price in form of 80,000 casualties, four million Afghan refugees, militancy and Kalashnikov culture.

He said Pakistan was still recovering from that chaos. Instead of previous mantra of doing more, Pakistan is now going to be ally in peace. The country was doing best to help Afghanistan have peaceful transition.

To a question about the opposition’s charges of political victimization, the prime minister said all of the cases against Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif were registered before his government.

He said the only difference was that the state institutions were no longer controlled by mafia and they were free to go after land grabbers, and other criminals.

He said previously, only the poor people used to stuck in jail. But now the state institutions are questioning those who had made billions while being in power.

Regarding Turkish ties, he said even before the creation of Pakistan, the Muslims of the sub-continent had special liking for Turkey for being the only independent Muslim state that time. Even the Muslims of this region had donated money to support the Turkish freedom struggle, he added.

He said during the visit, the two sides had decided to form a working group to ponder over the enhancement of bilateral trade during next five to ten years.

About Afghan peace, he said Pakistan had been playing its role to facilitate the peace process.

Regarding a sit-in by Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistan, the prime minister said the state had to take action against the group when they refused to accept the Supreme Court verdict in Asia Bibi case.

He said though the government was alive to all challenges confronting the country, it had yet taken the economic one and striving to stabilise the national economy by increasing foreign reserves and exports.

Responding to another query, he said China had been extremely helpful to Pakistan as it had been developing special economic zones and Gwadar Port that would boost the national economy.

He said far before breaking ground for Kartarpur Corridor, he had offered the Indian government to hold dialogue as two nuclear nations could not even afford cold war, what to talk of the nuclear one. But, he said, Pakistan had been rebuffed by India just to bag anti-Pakistan votes as the elections were coming up there.

The prime minister also lamented the unabated killings of innocent Kashmiris in Indian Occupied Kashmir. He said the international community including the United Nations had acknowledged that there was an indigenous freedom struggle there and the solution lied only in dialogue, not violence.