Prime Minister Imran Khan, an an interview with DW News said, ‘Cannot publicly talk about human rights issues concerning the Uighur Muslims because China is a great friend.’
In the same interview, when asked about why he’s always so vocal about the treatment of Muslims in India but has stayed silent when it comes to the human rights violations in China, the PM replied, “You cannot compare the scale of what is happening in India with what is supposed to be happening to the Uighur community in China.”
Why don’t we care about China’s Uighur Muslims?
It’s been described as the worst human rights crisis in the world — the arbitrary detention in sprawling camps of a million or more Uighur Muslims in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province. However, the world is silent and so is Pakistan, who is the biggest advocate against human rights violation against Muslims. The reason is quite simple. China is a major power and for Pakistan a very dear friend, who has invested a ton lot of money in the country too. Seeing as Pakistan is running on China’s investment and would have hit rock bottom a long time ago, logically speaking Pakistan’s silence is somewhat justified. But morally and ethically, Pakistan should be ashamed of not acknowledging the human rights violation.