He is known to be one of the fiercest critics of India at times. But former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan also shows his India-friendly face at times, just like he did on Saturday (13).
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, who lost the post of the prime minister in April to Shehbaz Sharif, addressed a rally in Lahore on the eve of Pakistan's 75th Independence Day where he played a video of Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and praised New Delhi's resistance to western pressure on not buying oil from Russia which the western world has sanctioned over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
“They [the US] ordered India to not buy oil from Russia. India is a strategic ally of the US. Pakistan does not share any such alliance with the US. Look at what India’s foreign minister said when the US asked them not to buy Russian oil,” Khan, 69, said and played a clip of Jaishankar speaking at the GLOBSEC 2022 Bratislava Forum in Slovakia in June.
When the Indian foreign minister was asked whether New Delhi's decision to buy oil from Moscow was funding the war in Ukraine, he countered saying why India is being questioned when European nations continued to do the same.
Ever since he lost power, Khan has accused the US of orchestrating a "regime change conspiracy" to bring an "obedient PM" to replace him. He also said at the rally that his fight for "real freedom" has now entered its "final phase" and the next step is holding nation-wide rallies against the Sharif government.
The PTI chief, however, said that he is not anti-US.
“I know America and the United Kingdom better than most of Pakistanis […] I know their psychology; if you beg them, they will use you,” Khan said, adding, “I am not anti-America at all. I want friendship with America. But I don’t want slavery."
A 1996 photo of rapper Tupac Shakur (L) and Marion "Suge" Knight is shown on screens during closing arguments in the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 31, 2026. Getty Images
A rescuer assists a resident through heavy mud following flash floods on August 27, 2026 in Trishuli, Nepal. A sudden flood swept through the Bhote Koshi River basin in northern Rasuwa on August 26, damaging settlements, roads and energy infrastructure as rescue teams searched for residents and foreign travellers reported out of contact. Hundreds were reported missing, as the death toll started to climb.Getty Images
Rescue personnel provide medical treatment to a child at an army rescue camp in Trishuli Batar, Nepal, on August 27, 2026. A sudden flood swept through the Bhote Koshi River basin in northern Rasuwa on August 26, damaging settlements, roads and energy infrastructure, as rescue teams searched for residents and foreign travellers reported out of contact. Hundreds were reported missing as the death toll began to climb. Getty Ima
Family members of missing flood victims react at the emergency ward of the Maharajgunj Medical Campus, part of the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, on August 28, 2026 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Authorities said the flash floods were triggered after a mass of ice, mud and rock collapsed into a Himalayan river near the Nepal-China border, leaving hundreds dead or missing and causing widespread damage in affected districts. Authorities continued the gruelling search for victims, many buried under metres of mud, as both China and Nepal issued fresh flooding alerts.Getty Images