Pakistan: Christians Seek Removal Of PM Imran Khan’s ‘Offensive’ Interview
By UCA News
By Kamran Chaudhry
(UCA News) — A Christian group in Canada is demanding that the national public news service remove an “offensive” interview featuring Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In his interview with CBC News aired on June 14, Khan talked about the need for Western nations to take action again Islamophobic “hate websites” and why he hasn’t publicly advocated for Uyghur Muslims in China. He also expressed concerns over the June 7 attack in which four members of a Pakistan-origin Muslim family in Canada were killed.
“As a non-Muslim religious minority originating in Pakistan, we found this interview deeply offensive, traumatic and appalling. It completely ignored the severe persecution of Pakistan’s religious minorities and the state-sponsored discrimination,” stated Canadian Aid to Persecuted Christians (CAPC) in a June 17 letter to CBC News.
“CBC should not have been interviewing Imran Khan as his own country’s human rights record is abysmal. Interviewing Imran Khan was inappropriate and unacceptable in this case. In response to persecution of non-Muslim minorities, the government of Pakistan, including PM Khan, has never held an emergency parliamentary secession, declared a national mourning day, put the flag at half-mast or attended memorials.
“Khan endorses non-Muslim persecution and discrimination. Many of us came to Canada by emigrating or seeking refuge to escape the severe persecution. Your interview reminds us of that discrimination. We demand that CBC take the interview off their social media platforms and apologize to Pakistan’s religious minorities.”
CAPC president Nadeem Bhatti also referred to Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who spent almost a decade on death row after being accused of blasphemy. Bibi was acquitted in 2018 but had to relocate to Canada due to threats to her life.
Saiful Malook, her Muslim lawyer, recently made an emphatic appeal to the international community to help him relocate to an English-speaking country after facing threats to his life.
Last month an unidentified motorcyclist shot Hindu trader Ashok Kumar dead as he opened his uncle’s shop in Wadh, Balochistan province.
Three blasphemy allegations against Christian nurses have already been reported this year.
