On Tuesday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan again tried to compare the treatment of minorities in his country and India. He said that the minor communities would be treated as equal citizens in “Naya Pakistan”, “unlike what is happening in India”, days after he made the statement that he would “show” the Modi government “how to treat minorities”.
Khan latest comments came on the occasion of Muhammad Ali Jinnah birthday. Taking to Twitter, Khan said, “Naya Pakistan is Quaid Pakistan and will ensure that our minorities are treated as equal citizens, unlike what is happening in India”.
He added that Jinnah had envisioned Pakistan as a “democratic, just and compassionate” nation.“His (Jinnah) struggle for a separate nation for Muslims only started when he realised that Muslims would not be treated as equal citizens by the Hindu majority”, said Khan, targetting India in his another tweet.
In response to the Pakistan PM's mockery of India, former Indian cricketer Mohammed Kaif on Tuesday tweeted, “There were around 20 per cent minorities at the time of partition in Pakistan, less than 2 per cent remain now. On the other hand, the minority population has grown significantly in India since Independence. Pakistan is the last country that should be lecturing any country on how to treat minorities."
The controversy over the issue satrted when actor Naseeruddin Shah lamented the rise of mob violence in India over cow vigilantism and expressed his fear over rising religious intolerance in the country.