Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan in an interview with Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan dismissed allegations of support for the Taliban as "absolute nonsense".
"Yes, they are [a terrorist group]," he conceded. "Anyone who kills innocent people are terrorists," Khan said.
Khan has often been criticised for adopting a "soft stance" on militants, as he has stressed for dialogue over militancy on several occasions. In one interview, he has described Taliban fighters as people oppressed by the state: "Terrorism in Pakistan is a reaction to drone strikes and military operations; suicide bombings are a tool of the weak used to attack oppressors."
He has also rejected his opponents labelling of him as "Taliban Khan", and said, “I am often made out to be the naughty boy who supports the Taliban."
In the interview with Al Jazeera, Khan urged scrutiny of his statements over the past 10 years for condemnations of violence.
Responding to allegations that he is soft on the Taliban, differentiates between 'good' and 'bad' militant groups and is 'mainstreaming extremism', Khan said, "Most people do not understand the Taliban syndrome. The Taliban syndrome has to be understood."
"There were no militant Taliban in Pakistan when 9/11 took place. There were no militant Taliban in Pakistan right up until 2004. The militancy started in Pakistan when the Pakistan Army went into our tribal areas, [which] are per capita the most weaponised place on earth."
Hasan also grills Khan regarding the controversial Rs300 million funding allocated for the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's provincial budget last month.
Both Khan and the KP cabinet have argued the funding is part of a plan to reform seminaries and bring them in line with mainstream education in the province.
The seminary is located in Nowshera district of KP and currently run by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami chief Maulana Samiul Haq. It has faced several controversies in the past as its students have been accused of involvement in the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The seminary is also said to be the alma mater of many prominent Afghan Taliban leaders.
In the Al Jazeera interview, Khan says accusations by former president Asif Ali Zardari ─ who termed the move to fund Haqqania a "legitimisation of militancy and militant Taliban" ─ are "like so many of the Muslim corrupt rulers, ex-rulers, trying to win Western support by saying how liberal they are and how anti-Taliban they are".
The PTI chief earlier said that the seminary had agreed to implement reforms in exchange for the funding.
The PTI's stance was that funding and support for Darul Uloom Haqqania would help seminary students assimilate into society, bring them in to the mainstream and keep them away from radicalisation. The PTI chief claimed those opposing such moves knew "little of Pakistani society".
