Citizenship law India’s internal matter, Pak PM habitually abusing global fora: MEA

On Monday, Pakistan's National Assembly moved a resolution against the new citizenship law stating it was against the bilateral agreements and understanding between the two countries and asked India to revoke the discriminatory clauses in it.




Hours after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan criticised the new citizenship law passed by India at the Global Forum on Refugees platform, the MEA Tuesday termed Khan’s statement as ‘gratuitous’ and ‘unwarranted’. Clarifying that it’s an internal matter of India, the MEA also rejected Pakistan’s resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act adopted on Monday.

“Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan has once again peddled familiar falsehoods at a multilateral platform to advance his narrow political agenda by making gratuitous & unwarranted remarks on matters entirely internal to India,” the MEA stated.

It is clear to the world, the MEA said, that Khan habitually and compulsively abuses global fora and this is an established pattern. “Over the past 72 years, Pakistan has systematically persecuted its minorities, forcing most of them to flee to India. PM Khan wishes the world forgets what his Army did in 1971 to people of erstwhile East Pakistan. Pakistan must act to protect and promote rights of its own minorities and co-religionists,” it said.

Earlier today, Pakistan’s leader told the Global Forum on Refugees in Geneva, “We are worried there not only could be a refugee crisis, we are worried it could lead to a conflict between two nuclear-armed countries.” He appealed to the international community to step in as “Pakistan will not be able to accommodate more refugees”.

Hitting back at Pakistan’s resolution adopted on Monday against the new citizenship law, the MEA said the matters referred to in the resolution are entirely India’s internal affairs. “We categorically reject the Resolution,” it said.

Calling the resolution a ‘poorly disguised’ effort, India said the neighbouring country is trying to divert attention from its ‘appalling’ treatment and persecution of its own religious minorities. “The demographics of these minorities, whether Hindu, Christian, Sikh or other faiths, in Pakistan, speak for themselves,” it said.

In a statement, the MEA said it is a ‘thinly-veiled attempt’ to further its ‘false’ narrative on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. ” It seeks to provide justification for Pakistan’s unrelenting support for cross-border terrorist activities in India. We’re confident that such attempts will fail,” the statement said.

On Monday, Pakistan’s National Assembly moved a resolution against the new citizenship law stating it was against the bilateral agreements and understanding between the two countries and asked India to revoke the discriminatory clauses in it. Pakistan has called out the new law ‘against international norms of equality and non-discrimination and International Human Rights Law’.

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