Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday said the media in his country had more freedom than in Britain ever since his PTI government came to power, news agency ANI reported. Khan, who is on his first visit to the US as the prime minister, made the comments while responding to a query on the recent reports of a crackdown on media in Pakistan. Ahead of his visit, the US had flagged concerns over the curtailment of press freedom in Pakistan, especially in the past year. "I have spent about 18 summers of my life in England. I have seen the British media, they are very open and free. But the Pakistan media, in my opinion, is freer than the British media," Khan said. Khan said his government was not trying to curb press freedom but merely bringing it under control by strengthening media watchdogs in the country. "I remember when media started reporting wrongly that the IMF had said that (Pakistani) rupee would fall to some number they reported, there was a run on the rupee as a result. I mean who would do that. First, you are trying to fight the biggest economic crisis in your history, and second you have media coming up with false news," he said. Imran Khan also said that he felt humiliated when the US forces killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden in a daring strike inside Pakistan in 2011. “Never did I feel more humiliated because here was a country which was supposed to be an ally and our ally did not trust us,” Khan said. In another briefing, Khan attacked the Opposition in Pakistan, saying there were 40 different militant groups operating in the country in the last two decades. He accused the previous governments of not disclosing this information to the allies and keeping the US in the dark. Meanwhile, the opposition parties in Pakistan called Imran Khan a “compulsive liar” and an advocate of terrorists, asserting that he tried his best to mislead the international community during his visit to the US. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) secretary-general Nafisa Shah said in a statement that Khan was regarded as “Taliban Khan without beard” by the victims of terror activities. (With inputs from ANI and PTI)
