Imran Khan leaves for New York to attend UNGA session

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday left for New York in the US from Saudi Arabia to attend the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Khan was accompanied by his delegation including Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfikar Bukhari.

The cricketer-turned-politician is scheduled to address the UNGA on Septemeber 27. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to use the platform to talk about major issues concerning the world including poverty, education and climate change, Khan has vowed to spew venom against India and continue peddling his false narrative over Kashmir.

"Overall, the centrality of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute would be emphasised through myriad engagements," said Pakistan's foreign ministry in a statement.

It is also ironical that although Imran Khan has been continuously raising his voice for the Kashmiris, he has remained mum over the human right conditions of the minorities in his own country.

Pakistan, on several occasions, has promised to safeguard the interests of minority communities in the nation. However, rampant attacks on minorities tell a different story.

Islamabad is openly discriminating against its religious minorities, which is manifested in various forms of targeted violence, mass murders, extrajudicial killings, abduction, rapes and forced conversion to Islam, making the Pakistani Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas, and Shias one of the most persecuted minorities in the region.

Recently various incidents have come to fore that highlights the deplorable condition of the minorities in the country. However, instead of addressing them, Imran Khan has made a disgusting comment that the recent blasphemy attack on a Hindu teacher in Pakistan's Ghotki was an attempt to sabotage his speech at the UNGA.

During his stay in New York, Imran Khan will hold several bilateral meetings with his counterparts from various regions and participate in high-level UN summits.

Imran Khan will attend and speak at other side events co-hosted by Pakistan and Turkey on countering hate speech. A trilateral summit of Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey will also be held on the UNGA sidelines.

Apart from these engagements, he will interact with a cross-section of international media outlets including meetings with editorial boards.