ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is urging China to ease pressures on the country’s Muslim minority amid warnings by rights groups that the Uighurs in China face restrictions on religious activities and mass detentions in so-called “re-education camps.”
The appeal comes as Pakistan has had traditionally good ties with its large neighbor.
Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, met Chinese envoy Yao Xing this week to discuss the situation of the Uighurs in China’s western Xingjian province.
Human Right Watch says forcible detentions of “thousands of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities” in Xingjian started in 2017.
Qadri says such pressures could foment reactionary extremist viewpoints and urged Beijing to take concrete steps on the issue.
Analysts say Pakistan’s move is significant amid growing pressure on China over human rights violations.
Pakistan urges China to ease pressure on Muslims minority
Pakistan urges China to ease pressure on Muslims minority
- The appeal comes as Pakistan has had traditionally good ties with its large neighbor
- Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, met Chinese envoy Yao Xing this week to discuss the situation of the Uighurs in China’s western Xingjian province
Pakistan’s Sindh orders inquiry after clashes at Imran Khan party rally in Karachi
- Khan’s PTI party accuses police of shelling to disperse its protesters, placing hurdles to hinder rally in Karachi
- Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah vows all those found guilty in the inquiry will be punished
ISLAMABAD: The government in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province has ordered an inquiry into clashes that took place between police and supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in Karachi on Sunday, as it held a rally to demand his release from prison.
The provincial government had granted PTI permission to hold a public gathering at Karachi’s Bagh-i-Jinnah Park and had also welcomed Sohail Afridi, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where Khan’s party is in power, when he arrived in the city last week. However, the PTI cited a delay in receiving a permit and announced a last-minute change to a gate of Mazar-i-Quaid, the mausoleum of the nation’s founder.
Despite the change, PTI supporters congregated at the originally advertised venue. PTI officials claimed the party faced obstacles in reaching the venue and that its supporters were met with police intervention. Footage of police officers arresting Khan supporters in Karachi were shared widely on social media platforms.
“A complete inquiry is being held and whoever is found guilty in this, he will be punished,” Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah said while speaking to a local news channel on Sunday.
Shah said the PTI had sought permission to hold its rally at Bagh-i-Jinnah in Karachi from the Sindh government, even though the venue’s administration falls under the federal government’s jurisdiction.
He said problems arose when the no objection certificate to hold the rally was delayed for a few hours and the party announced it would hold the rally “on the road.”
The rally took place amid rising tensions between the PTI and Pakistan’s military and government. Khan, who remains in jail on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated since August 2023, blames the military and the government for colluding to keep him away from power by rigging the 2024 general election and implicating him in false cases. Both deny his allegations.
Since Khan was ousted in a parliamentary vote in April 2022, the PTI has complained of a widespread state crackdown, while Khan and his senior party colleagues have been embroiled in dozens of legal cases.
