US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan's prosecution was a legal matter for Pakistani courts to determine, hours after the former prime minister was sentenced to imprisonment for disclosing state secrets.
A number of journalists in the State Department asked questions about the elections in Pakistan and Imran Khan's imprisonment.
Journalist Reyan gave tough time to the State Department Spokesperson as he asked, "When it came to Venezuela, that’s a political matter, it seems. The Venezuelan courts, of course, approved Maduro’s banning of the party. Now, you could say that the court is under Maduro’s thumb; it’s a kangaroo court, but in Pakistan, the prosecution was held in secret. Just recently, Imran Khan’s attorneys were kept out of the courtroom, and they took attorneys from the prosecution team and put them on the defense team. Like, nothing about that prosecution seems less than kangaroo. So why would Venezuela’s be a political case, but when it comes to Pakistan, that’s a matter for the Pakistani courts?
While replying to the question, the spokesperson said, "So they are different situations, and we have not yet reached that conclusion with respect to the Pakistani legal process. When you look at Venezuela, we are looking at the entire history of the Maduro regime cracking down on democracy and, most importantly, in this case, failing to carry out the commitments that they made to allow candidates to run. It’s a commitment that they made that the country has reneged on, and that’s why we were able to make the assessment in that case."
In another question, he was asked: Are state institutions going after a key political figure in Pakistan before the elections and trying to keep him out of power? The state department spokesperson said, "So the prosecution of the former prime minister is a legal matter, and we would defer to the Pakistani courts with respect to a legal matter, but of course we want to see the democratic process unfold in a way that allows broad participation for all parties and respects democratic principles. We don’t take a position, as you have heard us say before, about internal Pakistani matters, and we don’t take a position with respect to candidates for office in Pakistan. We want to see a free, fair, and open democratic process, and when it comes to legal matters, those are matters for the Pakistani courts to decide."
We certainly want to see a free and fair election, and we will be monitoring how that proceeds over the next week to 10 days, he added.
While responding to the US policy on Pakistan, the spokesperson said, "So I’m not going to speak to the views of the people of Pakistan. They can obviously speak for themselves, but we have engaged to promote stability in the region, advance democracy in Pakistan, and deepen economic ties between the United States and Pakistan, which will ultimately improve the lives of the Pakistani people. And that's the policy that we will continue to pursue."