Watch: At rally in Lahore, Imran Khan heaps praise on India's 'independent foreign policy'

Former Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan once again praised India's independent foreign policy during a rally in Lahore on Saturday, comparing it unfavorably with the policy followed by Pakistan under the premiership of his rival and successor, Shehbaz Sharif.

Having invited his supporters to attend his party’s independence day celebrations on August 13 where he said he will take Pakistanis into confidence over his journey of “Haqiqi Azadi,” Imran lauded India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for standing firm to US pressure over buying cheap oil from Russia.

The ex-Pakistani premier shared a clip showing Jaishankar criticising the West for being hypocritical on India for buying Russian oil amid sanctions, even as Europe remains the largest buyer of Russian oil by far.

This is not the first time Imran has praised Indian strategic autonomy.

In April this year, Imran tweeted, "Despite being part of the Quad, India sustained pressure from the US and bought discounted Russian oil to provide relief to the masses. This is what our govt was working to achieve with the help of an independent foreign policy," while retweeting an information about reduction of the petrol and diesel prices in India.

At the time, Imran Khan contrasted this unfavorably with Pakistan, adding that "Mir Jafars and Mir Sadiqs" bowed to the external pressure forcing a regime change, and "are now running around like a headless chicken with the economy in a tailspin."

"For our govt, Pakistan's interest was supreme but unfortunately the local Mir Jafars & Mir Sadiqs bowed to external pressure forcing a regime change, and are now running around like a headless chicken with the economy in a tailspin," the former PM tweeted.