Pakistan slams India’s controversial citizenship bill

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday strongly condemned the decision taken by India’s Parliament to pass the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which grants citizenship to all religious minorities from neighboring countries, except Muslims.
“It violates all norms of int [international] human rights law & bilateral agreements with Pak. It is part of the RSS Hindu Rashtra design of expansionism propagated by the fascist Modi Govt,” he tweeted.
On Monday, Indian Lok Sabha — the lower House of Parliament — took up the hearing for the CAB, with Pakistan’s Foreign Office criticizing the move later in the day.
“It is a complete violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international Covenants on elimination of all forms of discrimination based on religion or belief,” a statement released by the FO said, adding that the legislation is also “in complete contravention of various bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India, particularly the one concerning the security and rights of minorities.”
The FO termed the legislation as another major step toward the realization of the concept of “Hindu Rashtra idealized and relentlessly pursued by the right-wing Hindu leaders for several decades.”
“We condemn the legislation as regressive and discriminatory, which is in violation of all relevant international conventions and norms, and a glaring attempt by India to interfere in the neighboring countries with malafide intent,” the statement read.
The CAB seeks to amend the country’s Citizenship Act 1955, aimed at granting citizenship to persecuted minorities such as Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians and Parsis from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but excludes Muslims.