Updated: September 27, 2020 7:47:12 pm
Khan said the COVID-19 pandemic has “fueled nationalism” and “led to hatred and racial and religious violence” against minorities and accentuated “Islamophobia” (Archive)
In his roughly 30-minute speech at this year’s UN General Assembly on September 25, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan spent a significant amount of time throwing veiled spikes at “neighbors”, essentially referencing your country’s longstanding disputes with India. Other topics Khan mentioned in his speech were fiscal recovery from the impact of COVID-19, international money laundering and its impact on developing countries, climate change, and Islamophobia.
Having addressed these issues, Khan spent the rest of his time talking about Kashmir and India’s repeal of Article 370 last year. Here is a summary of everything Khan mentioned regarding Pakistan’s ongoing diplomatic disputes with India.
How did Imran Khan steer the narrative towards India?
The hint that Khan’s speech would take this direction and focus on Pakistan’s disputes with India came relatively early when the leader touched on his country’s foreign policy. “A just and humane society where all government policies are aimed at lifting our citizens out of poverty and creating a just and equitable dispensation. Therefore, our foreign policy aims to have peace with our neighbors and resolve disputes through dialogue, ”Khan said.
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A few minutes later, Khan indicated that the UN was the only body that could help Pakistan achieve its goals in its neighborhood. Later, the leader went on to make indirect reference to the repeal of Article 370 by stating that “self-determination of the peoples, sovereign equality and territorial integrity of the states, non-interference in internal affairs, international cooperation; all these ideals are systematically eroding. “Before turning to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and how Pakistan has coped with infections, Khan said:” International agreements are being pushed aside … military occupation, illegal annexations are suppressing the rights of human beings to self-determination. “
What did Khan say about Islamophobia?
Khan said the COVID-19 pandemic has “fueled nationalism” and “led to racial and religious hatred and violence” against minorities and accentuated “Islamophobia.” Khan singled out French news publication Charlie Hebdo for republishing “blasphemous sketches”, saying that intentional provocations and incitement to hatred and violence “must be” prohibited.
Although the leader said that Muslims were being “attacked with impunity” in several countries and their shrines destroyed, he refrained from calling out China for its persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
What did Khan say about India?
Imran Khan singled out India in his UNGA speech by stating that it was the only “country” that “the state sponsors Islamophobia”, rooted in “RSS ideology”. Khan went on to discuss the origins of the RSS in great detail, stating that the organization was “inspired by the Nazis” and their “concepts of racial purity and supremacy.” “While the hatred of the Nazis was directed at Jews, the RSS directs it towards Muslims and, to a lesser extent, towards Christians,” Khan said.
Citing the examples of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the burning of the Samjhota Express train, the RSS, Khan said, believes that India is “exclusive to Hindus and others are not equal citizens” and has engaged in the “cleaning” of “200 million Muslims and other minorities.”
Khan also mentioned the NRC and the CAA, in particular their impact on Assam, where “two million Muslims” faced stripping of their citizenship. “There are reports that Muslim Indian citizens are filling up large concentration camps,” Khan (sic) said.
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Khan briefly mentioned that Muslims were being “falsely blamed, vilified and victimized” for the spread of COVID-19 in reference to the Tablighi Jamaat and the cow watchers. In what appears to be a reference to the CAA and the NRC, Khan called the “mass records” a “precursor to genocide” and compared it to Germany in 1935 during the implementation of the Nuremberg Laws and the implementation of the citizenship laws. from Myanmar in 1982. Khan added that “the Hindutva ideology … does not bode well for the future of India.”
The last of his attacks on India was on the Kashmir issue, in particular the repeal of Article 370. Khan accused India of “raising the military stakes” against Pakistan to divert attention from Jammu and Kashmir. Khan claimed that Islamabad had “exercised the utmost restraint” in circumstances in which India had allegedly participated in “provocations and ceasefire violations” along the Line of Control and the Labor Border.
Khan declared that Islamabad would fight for “its freedom to the end” if India’s “totalitarian fascist RSS-led government” attempted to “assault” Pakistan. Khan ended his remarks on Kashmir by saying that there would be “no peace and stability” in South Asia until the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir was resolved “on the basis of international legitimacy.”
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Pointing to United Nations Security Council resolution 1264 in 1999, where the international body intervened in East Timor to get the people to vote for Indonesian independence, Khan called for similar resolutions to be enacted in Jammu and Kashmir. “India must rescind the measures it has instituted since August 5, 2019,” Khan said.
What else did Khan say?
Khan closed his speech by referring to the Peace Agreement between the United States and the Taliban in February 2020 and the possible way forward for Afghanistan and its impact on Pakistan due to their shared borders. Khan also highlighted Israel’s annexations of the West Bank and their impact on the lives of the Palestinian people, including those in Gaza. Khan also said that Islamabad will continue to support the two-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of the independent state of Palestine.
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