KT exclusive: Imran Khan bats for peace with India

Poll alliance with Zardari was also ruled out.

Imran Khan, Pakistan's cricket icon and leader of the opposition Tehrik-i-Insaaf, says that everyone in the country wants peace with India.
In an exclusive interview to Khaleej Times at his hilltop house on the outskirts of Pakistan's capital Islamabad, the cricketer-turned-politician who met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, said: "I am a bit disturbed by the way Prime Minister Modi has tried to isolate Pakistan rather than encouraging the relationship forward. All of us, I mean, everyone in Pakistan wants peace with India. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong."
India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads since a group of gunmen killed 19 Indian soldiers in September at an army camp in Kashmir, an attack India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
But Khan said that "the hallmark of good leaders is that they should resist this pressure of going back to hostilities in the event of a terrorist attack. I think the responsibility lies with the bigger country. India is a huge country and it could have done more to improve the relationship with Pakistan".
"I think trade with all the neighbours should be Pakistan's priority. And trade with India and China would be the best way," he suggested.
Leaders of the opposition Pakistan People's Party Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto have announced they would be entering the parliament after winning by-elections. And Imran Khan, who says he is fighting for a corruption-free and a just Pakistan, has hinted at being ready for a joint struggle to make Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif accountable for "stashing billions in offshore accounts".
"As far as the joint opposition against Panama goes, we were all together in the assembly." We wanted the prime minister to answer those questions. And on that issue we'll probably be together in the parliament with all the opposition," said Khan while making it clear that "there is no question of an electoral alliance" with the PPP.
A former Pakistan cricket team captain who won his country the World Cup in 1992, he is unhappy about the way the cricket affairs are being run in Pakistan. "Pakistani cricket is very poorly managed. The structure is probably one of the worst anywhere in the world. Because we do not have a proper cricket structure, proper management in Pakistan, we cannot tap into this huge talent."
Khan, whose two marriages have ended in divorce, says he is not sure about a third one in 2017.

• Pakistan