• From President Pervez Musharraf’s biggest cheerleader during the referendum campaign, Imran Khan became one of his severest critics:Well, let me say that it was a mistake. and I have always accepted it. I made a mistake. Not only me, a lot of people in Pakistan made a mistake, because we saw General Musharraf (as an) intelligent, articulate man who gave the right message in Pakistan. His seven-point agenda was one which all of us accepted and thought would change Pakistan. Unfortunately, when he went off that seven-point. by the time, we realised that it was another power struggle rather than a movement for change, it was too late.• How he would have dealt with the A Q Khan episode:I would never have allowed the chief scientist to come on TV and give a speech in English, apologising, supposedly to the Pakistan people, for nuclear proliferation. .. I would have handled it by saying there would be an internal inquiry. Just because some foreign agencies hand you over these things it doesn’t mean you accept that. • On whether he would refuse to have American military bases in Pakistan:Yes, yes, I would. I would certainly not have gone in the tribal area and done what the US is doing just so that Bush can win his election. He is putting our soldiers at risk, killing people. If there are any Al Qaeda people here, they are hiding in these caves.it is only a matter of time before they capture them. But why, just so that he can win elections, (should) we send our troops there. There could be a problem in the tribal areas we would be lumbered with when the Americans are long gone.• Cross-culture marriages and the western influence:If you marry someone from another culture there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. If your children, at the moment, happen to be studying in the UK because my wife happens to be doing a masters degree there. Yes, they are small children so they will be with their mother.Of course, I think a cross-culture marriage is very difficult. It has. it can be disastrous. But it’s very difficult. It’s very tough to sustain it. And here is me, I mean er, I went in at a mature age, not as a young boy, with my eyes open, knowing that it was going to be very difficult.That speculation has been for eight years. Ever since we got married there has been speculation that the marriage won’t last. Mercifully we have defied the speculation so far.
