Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (PM) on National Security aide Dr Moeed Yusuf has termed the Chinese persecution of Uyghur Muslims a “non-issue”.
In an interview with Indian media outlet The Wire, Yusuf on Tuesday revealed that India had expressed a “desire for conversation” but said that Pakistan’s agreement to talks would be conditional.
While his statements and Pakistan’s pre-conditions for the resumption of “meaningful dialogue” with India to resolve all outstanding issues have made headlines, the details less reported are of what he had to say about Chinese persecution of Muslim minority Uyghurs in its Xinjiang region.
Even though China is facing growing criticism over its crimes against the said minority group, huge numbers of whom are allegedly being held in internment camps, Pakistan has been accused of turning a blind eye towards the same.
On Tuesday, when asked why PM Imran Khan had never raised his voice for the Uyghur community in China, the SAPM said, “China and Pakistan are friends like no other. We have a completely transparent relationship; virtually everything under the sky, we discuss.
“Uyghurs is a non-issue […] Our delegations have visited, we’ve seen and we are a 100 per cent satisfied that it’s a non-issue. The West can say what it wants. I am telling you as a responsible official: we know everything we need to know about the Uighurs and everything else in China as they do about us.”
Thapar quoted an interview PM Imran gave to the Financial Times last year, where the premier had said: “Frankly, I don’t know much about” the Uyghur issue. Yusuf, however, continued to insist that the matter was a non-issue and said that he had briefed the premier about it.
YUSUF UNDER FIRE:
Among the many prominent persons who reacted to Yusuf’s remarks was Omar Waraich, who is the South Asia deputy director of global rights group Amnesty International.
Here’s what he had to say:
Several others also called Imran’s aide out.
