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Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said Pakistan wants "even-handed treatment" from the United States with respect to India, especially on the Kashmir issue.

In an interview with German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, he cautioned that the area turned into a hotspot and may flare up at any moment.

"That is the reason why we anticipate the US, since the most powerful nation on earth, to be even-handed, whoever becomes president. The US believes India will include China, which will be a totally faulty assumption.

"India is a danger to its allies, to China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka as well as people. It's got the most extremist, racist government on the subcontinent. It's a fascist state, motivated by the Nazis from the 1920s and 30s," he explained.

During a trip to New Delhi, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo explained that the two nations had to work together to face the danger China posed to safety and liberty.

Similarities with Trump

With the US elections only a couple of days away, Imran refrained from stating that which candidate had a much better chance at winning.

"Joe Biden is leading in opinion polls, but Donald Trump is quite unpredictable because he is not like ordinary politicians. He plays with his own principles," he explained.

Imran said when he began his own party he needed to do a great deal of"out-of-the-box thinking"." [PTI] was the first to rely on social networking and also the very first to pull the youth into our political rallies."

Wondering if he noticed similarities between the US president, Imran said: "We [PTI] needed to be quite unorthodox and, in certain ways, Donald Trump does also."

Afghan war

Following 9/11, we shouldn't have let our military to become involved in the war. I opposed it in the very beginning. The US put pressure on us and the military dictator General Pervez Musharraf succumbed to this pressure."

When the interviewer pointed out, at that moment, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were the only nations encouraging the Taliban, he responded: "Do not forget, Osama bin Laden was a hero in the 1980s. He encouraged the Mujahideen from the Soviets in Afghanistan, and he was endorsed by the CIA and Pakistan.

"It had been Pakistan's right to recognise the Taliban but Pakistan had no control over the Taliban".

Asked how Pakistan managed to bring the Taliban to the bargaining table, '' the premier said that the nation had leverage because of 2.7 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan".

But he added that nobody can predict how things will proceed in Afghanistan. "What I could say is that after Afghanistan, the nation that needs peace the most is Pakistan.

"We've lost 70,000 individuals in this battle, and our tribal regions adjacent to the Afghan border have been ruined during the previous 15 years. Half of those in these regions are now internally displaced."

Imran was asked concerning the recent trip of Afghan politician and Hizb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to Islamabad.

"We don't have any favourites in Afghanistan. Our sole interest is the future government in Kabul doesn't allow India to operate against Pakistan," he stated, adding that Hekmatyar participated in the elections also accepts the constitution of Afghanistan.

Also, he loathed the"double image" awarded to Pakistan. "It all began in the 1980s, following the Iranian revolution. Many in the West started looking at Muslim nations like there was a split between liberals and fundamentalists -- a very artificial evaluation.

"Muslim nations are no different from other communities. All communities are split into moderates, which comprise the bulk, and the extremists."

Freedom of speech

"Pakistan has more freedom of speech compared to just about any Western nation," the primer maintained when asked concerning the execution of a potential new law forbidding criticism of the Pakistan Army.

There was a defamation case involving an English cricket celebrity which I won since defamation laws are extremely powerful there. However, such slander laws do not exist in Pakistan.

"I've been wrongly slandered as prime minister and gone to court but even as prime minister, I have not managed to find justice."

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"Every day, our security forces lose men and women in battle. Every nation protects its institutions, not when they do anything wrong, but if they are being assaulted."

When the interviewer pointed out that the law might make it impossible for journalists to report against the Pakistan Army at the long run, he explained: "There will probably be an additional method of managing the security forces -- not through the press, but the government.

"I will talk to the military chief if I believe there is something wrong. There are human rights violations in military operations and occasionally we talk about it as it occurs. But this shouldn't be carried out in public.

"When soldiers are risking their own lives, you cannot demoralise them in public."

Yemen conflict

Calling the battle in Yemen a"colossal human rights tragedy", Imran said that he instantly offered to mediate after coming to power.

However, you can not force anyone to agree on peace talks when they do not need to."

Commenting on a possible war between Riyadh and Tehran, he explained: "It could be a tragedy. It would be catastrophic for countries all around the planet, particularly the poor, and the price of oil would shoot up"

Discussing the normalisation of ties between Israel and many nations in the Middle East, the premier reiterated that Pakistan wouldn't recognise Israel before the Palestinian struggle is settled.

Every country has its own foreign policy. They must consider their own people and it is their choice. In terms of Pakistan, the creator of the Country, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, talked from the 1940s about the situation as a Massive breach of human rights.

"Pakistan still takes this opinion. Unless there is a mere settlement, we can't recognise Israel."

Admiration of China

The prime minister lauded China decreasing poverty and voiced his desire to replicate the same in Pakistan. I respect China since they've taken 700 million people out of poverty in a brief span of 40 years.

Despite not having electoral politics, they're great at bringing the top people to the very best inside their nation. It is a method based on meritocracy.

"I have seen the way the Communist Party brings talent

to the very top. Further, in the previous seven years, China has put 450 ministerial-level officials in jail on corruption charges."

He added that states aren't poor due to a scarcity of resources but due to corruption among the leadership.

"As we all know in the Panama Papers, the same goes for Pakistani politicians. Millions of dollars went to lands at the most expensive places in London, siphoned away from this nation."

When asked regarding the 11-party resistance alliance which has pledged lately to oust his administration, the premier said:"They wish to blackmail me to get themselves from corruption cases. But there is no way that I could relent.

"We're facing the largest trade difference in our background. The rupee is falling and there is inflation since we import gas. Everything is becoming more and more costly, even power.

"We need to boost our earnings so we must improve our tax base. We are going through those painful reforms and most of these men from the resistance get together. They're worried that after we stabilise things, they'll all wind up in prison due to corruption cases"

Pakistan's handling of the pandemic

Commenting on the country's comparatively low number of coronavirus deaths and cases, the primer stated that'smart lockdowns' would be the key to controlling the spread of this virus.

"Nearly half of the populace survives on a weekly and daily salary. We did not stop distribution lines.

"We did not halt the agriculture sector and immediately reopened the construction industry since that is what employs the many people in metropolitan cities. He added that India, on the other hand, restricted individuals to their houses in poor places.

"They have an abundance of poverty currently, same in Iran."

Wondering if the government has a very clear image of this pandemic in Pakistan, the prime minister responded: "About 180,000 to 200,000 individuals are examined every week and also our nationwide coordination team appears at multiple numbers and has an extremely clear composite image of the outbreak.

"From peak numbers in June, we found a steady decrease in cases, deaths and positivity throughout the nation until late August. Now, we are expecting to survive the next wave."

His 'soulmate'

On a lighter note, the premier expressed his wife, Bushra Bibi, was his"soulmate".

"Only a fool does not speak about everything with his wife. She has great wisdom. I talk everything with her," he said. "She is my soulmate. She is my companion. I would never have survived without her."