ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday endorsed the Chinese version regarding Xinjiang’s 1.5 million Uyghur Muslims who have been allegedly facing stern human rights violations on a massive scale.
In an interaction with Chinese journalists, Khan observed that Beijing’s version on the issue was completely opposite to “what we hear from the western media and western governments.”
“Because we have a very strong relationship with China and because we have a relationship based on trust, we actually accept the Chinese version,” the prime minister said.
He noted that there were “much worse human rights issues” in the world that were not raised by the international press while referring to the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.
“And we hear about Xinjiang and Hong Kong which is a bit hypocritical,” he continued.
Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization, claimed in one of its reports earlier this year that about a million Muslims in Xinjiang had been “arbitrarily detained in 300 to 400 facilities” that included “’political education’ camps, pretrial detention centers, and prisons.”
“Given the gravity of the abuses against Turkic Muslims, there is a pressing need for concerned governments to take strong, coordinated action to advance accountability,” the HRW said while recommending a UN inquiry into the alleged rights abuses against the Uyghur community.
Last month, the prime minister refused to acknowledge reports about Uyghur Muslims during an interview with Axios on HBO channel, saying: “Whatever issues we have with the Chinese, we speak to them behind closed doors.”
“China has been one of the greatest friends to us in our most difficult times,” he maintained. “When we were really struggling, our economy was struggling, China came to our rescue. So, we respect the way they are.”
This is the first time, however, Khan has publicly endorsed the Chinses version on Xinjiang.
Last October, Pakistan’s National Security Advisory Dr. Moeed Yusuf told an Indian journalist Karan Thapar that Islamabad was not worried about the situation in Xinjiang.
“We are 100 percent satisfied it is a non-issue,” he told the interviewer. “The West can say what it wants. I can say to you as a responsible official that we know everything about Uighurs and it is a non-issue.”
Pakistan and China are celebrating 70 years of their diplomatic relations this year.
Pakistan accepts ‘China’s version’ on Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims — PM Khan
https://arab.news/z578a
Pakistan accepts ‘China’s version’ on Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims — PM Khan
- This is the first time a Pakistani prime minister has publicly endorsed Beijing’s narrative on the issue
- International rights groups have demanded UN investigation into the alleged persecution of Muslims in China’s northwest region
Imran Khan’s party shutdown draws mixed response; government calls it ‘ineffective’
- Ex-PM Khan’s PTI party had called for a ‘shutter-down strike’ to protest Feb. 8, 2024 general election results
- While businesses reportedly remained closed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they continued as normal elsewhere
ISLAMABAD: A nationwide “shutter-down strike” called by former prime minister Imran Khan’s party drew a mixed response in Pakistan on Sunday, underscoring political polarization in the country two years after a controversial general election.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PIT) opposition party had urged the masses to shut businesses across the country to protest alleged rigging on the second anniversary of the Feb. 8, 2024 general election.
Local media reported a majority of businesses remained closed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, governed by the PTI, while business continued as normal in other provinces as several trade associations distanced themselves from the strike call.
Arab News visited major markets in Islamabad’s G-6, G-9, I-8 and F-6 sectors, as well as commercial hubs in Rawalpindi, which largely remained operational on Sunday, a public holiday when shops, restaurants and malls typically remain open in Pakistan.
“Pakistan’s constitution says people will elect their representatives. But on 8th February 2024, people were barred from exercising their voting right freely,” Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri, the PTI opposition leader in the Senate, said at a protest march near Islamabad’s iconic Faisal Mosque.
Millions of Pakistanis voted for national and provincial candidates during the Feb. 8, 2024 election, which was marred by a nationwide shutdown of cellphone networks and delayed results, leading to widespread allegations of election manipulation by the PTI and other opposition parties. The caretaker government at the time and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) both rejected the allegations.
Khan’s PTI candidates contested the Feb. 8 elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls. They won the most seats but fell short of the majority needed to form a government, which was made by a smattering of rival political parties led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The government insists the polling was conducted transparently and that Khan’s party was not denied a fair chance.
Authorities in the Pakistani capital deployed a heavy police contingent on the main road leading to the Faisal Mosque on Sunday. Despite police presence and the reported arrest of some PTI workers, Jafri led local PTI members and dozens of supporters who chanted slogans against the government at the march.
“We promise we will never forget 8th February,” Jafri said.
The PTI said its strike call was “successful” and shared videos on official social media accounts showing closed shops and markets in various parts of the country.
The government, however, dismissed the protest as “ineffective.”
“The public is fed up with protest politics and has strongly rejected PTI’s call,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on X.
“It’s Sunday, yet there is still hustle and bustle.”
Ajmal Baloch, All Pakistan Traders Association president, said they neither support such protest calls, nor prevent individuals from closing shops based on personal political affiliation.
“It’s a call from a political party and we do not close businesses on calls of any political party,” Baloch told Arab News.
“We only give calls of strike on issues related to traders.”
Khan was ousted from power in April 2022 after what is widely believed to be a falling out with the country’s powerful generals. The army denies it interferes in politics. Khan has been in prison since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal challenges that ruled him out of the Feb. 8 general elections and which he says are politically motivated to keep him and his party away from power.
In Jan. 2025, an accountability court convicted Khan and his wife in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust land corruption case, sentencing him to 14 years and her to seven years after finding that the trust was used to acquire land and funds in exchange for alleged favors. The couple denies any wrongdoing.
