Imran Khan compares Pakistan to India over minorities again, faces backlash

Barely hours after former cricketer Mohammed Kaif slammed Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for his comment on minorities in India and said, "Pakistan should be the last country that should be lecturing on how to treat minorities", Khan raked up the issue for the second time this week. Speaking on the occasion of Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah's birth anniversary on Tuesday, Khan said minorities would be treated as equal citizens in Naya Pakistan "unlike what is happening in India".

Taking to social media, Khan tweeted, "Quaid envisaged Pakistan as a democratic and compassionate nation. It should be remembered that his early political career was as an ambassador for Hindu Muslim unity." Khan added that Jinnah's "struggle for a separate nation for Muslims only began when he realised that Muslims would not be treated as equal citizens." He then went on "Naya Pak is Quaid's Pak & we will ensure that our minorities are treated as equal citizens, unlike what is happening in India." It is the second time in a week that Khan has tried to compare the treatment of minorities in his country and India.

He faced a backlash from Indians over his remark as it lacked credibility that comes from being backed by records.

The mass exodus of non-Muslims from Pakistan during the Partition in 1947 is not the only time non-Muslims were persecuted in Pakistan.

Not only was Pakistan's Punjab governor Salman Taseer killed by radicals for defending minorities, but a Christian woman Asia Bibi's trial on blasphemy charges has also rocked the world.