Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that the Indian lobby in the United States plays a crucial role in fanning the flames of Anti-Islamabad narrative professed by New Delhi.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

''The powerful Indian lobby in America was playing a key role in strengthening India's narrative against Pakistan, which was affecting the US policies for his country,'' Khan said while addressing the gathering of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) on Saturday. 

He also said that the lobby has been efficient enough to counter Pakistan's narrative which invariably reflects in Washington's policies.  

Imran Khan urged its "most powerful and influential Pakistani group" overseas, APPNA, to challenge the Indian lobby's position in the US.

The statement comes at a time when Khan was snubbed internationally on the Kashmir issue.

After the abrogation of Article 370, Khan tried to raise the Kasmir issue at the United Nations but was snubbed by most member countries, many refusing to intervene on the matter.

Even the top officials in the United States have agreed with India's stand that the abrogation of Article 370 is India's "internal matter." 

Khan also criticised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government on the recent police crackdown against the anti-CAA protestors in various parts of the country, and the shutting down of internet services following the protests.

Meanwhile, a report filed by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) stated that religious freedom in Pakistan is suffering continuos deterioration under the Imran Khan-led government in Pakistan.

The report titled, "Pakistan-Religious freedom under attack"`, released in December by CSW, a commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, stated that the Pakistan government's discriminatory legislation has led people with "extremist mindsets" to launch attacks on religious minorities.

Highlighting the increasing "weaponisation and politicisation" of the blasphemy laws and anti-Ahmadiyya legislation, the commission stated that these laws are incentivising Islamist groups to attack religious minorities on political grounds.

The report stated, "The prolonged misuse of the blasphemy laws over the last three decades, combined with the rise of extremism, has had a damaging normative impact on social harmony. The sensitive nature of blasphemy cases serves to heighten religious fervour and has created an environment of mob violence in which people take matters into their own hands, often with fatal consequences," 

It also highlighted that girls belonging to 'religious minority' communities are forced to "convert and marry Muslim men."