Pakistan PM Imran Khan says Afghans have broken 'shackles of slavery'

The Pakistan Prime Minister made these remarks while addressing a ceremony to launch the first phase of the Single National Curriculum (SNC) from Grade 1 to 5, which was part of the manifesto of his ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. 

New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday (August 16) seemed to endorse the Taliban taking over Kabul by saying that Afghanistan has broken the shackles of slavery in the neighbouring war-torn country. The longstanding war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Kabul before entering the city and took over the presidential palace, forcing embattled President Ashraf Ghani to join fellow citizens and foreigners to flee the country. Khan made these remarks while addressing a ceremony to launch the first phase of the Single National Curriculum (SNC) from Grade 1 to 5, which was part of the manifesto of his ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The premier spoke how the parallel education system led to the existence of "English medium" schools, resulting in the adoption of "someone else's culture" in Pakistan. "When you adopt someone's culture you believe it to be superior and you end up becoming a slave to it," he said, adding that it creates a system of mental salves that is worse than the actual slavery. In the same breath, he indirectly likened the ongoing upheaval in Afghanistan with the people of the country breaking the "shackles of slavery".