Imran Khan

In an interview with CNN, Khan also called out the US for repeatedly accusing Pakistan of harbouring terrorists, Dawn news reported. "What are these safe havens? The area of Pakistan along the border of Afghanistan had the heaviest surveillance by the US drones, surely they would have known if there were any safe havens?" The premier said that Pakistan was unable to take military action against the Afghan Taliban because they were not attacking Pakistan.

Islamabad has been in the grip of an intense of "triumphalism" as the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US troops but "deep down" there are concerns as it could once again be in the spotlight for its direct links with terror outfits. Pakistan based think tank Tabadlab estimated a cumulative real GDP loss of approximately $38 billion

Titled "Silencing the media", the Dawn newspaper editorial said all major bodies representing the media have rightly rejected the proposed Pakistan Media Development Authority and termed the intended law behind it a draconian one. The last few years have taken a heavy toll on the media industry both in terms of financial and editorial pressures. These have led to painful job cuts and the shrinking of space for quality journalism.

"Pakistan will have direct impact of a long civil war in Afghanistan because of the large Pashtun population we have in the country. The country that will be most affected after Afghanistan will be Pakistan. It has happened in the past when our Pashtun people reacted to what was happening in Afghanistan. Because of that, we lost over 60,000 people," Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said.

"I think that the Americans have decided that India is their strategic partner now, and I think that's why there's a different way of treating Pakistan now," Khan told foreign journalists at his home in Islamabd, a global news wire reported. A political settlement in Afghanistan was looking difficult under current conditions, he added. The Prime minister said he tried to persuade the Taliban leaders when they were visiting Pakistan to reach a settlement.

"We've other options if US President Joe Biden continues to ignore the country's leadership," Yusuf told the Financial Times in an interview. "The President of the United States hasn't spoken to the Prime Minister of such an important country who the US itself says is make-or-break in some cases, in some ways, in Afghanistan — we struggle to understand the signal, right?" he said.

In August 2019, the Imran Khan-led government had announced the plan to convert the prime minister's residence into a university and PM Khan had even vacated the house for this purpose. However, the Pakistan government has now dropped that plan and decided to rent out the property for generating more funds for the state exchequer. Pakistan's GDP has contracted by USD 19 billion in the three years since Khan took office.