Will ensure minorities treated as equal citizens in Naya Pakistan: PM Khan

Pakistan will ensure that our minorities are treated as equal citizens, said PM Imran Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for the second time within a week tried to compare the treatment of minorities in his country and India, saying they would be treated as equal citizens in Naya Pakistan "unlike what is happening in India".

On the occasion of Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah's birth anniversary on Tuesday, Khan said that Jinnah had envisaged Pakistan as a "democratic, just and compassionate" nation.

"Naya Pakistan is Quaid's (Jinnah) Pakistan and will ensure that our minorities are treated as equal citizens, unlike what is happening in India," Khan tweeted.

He said Jinnah wanted "our minorities to be equal citizens. It should be remembered that his early political career was as an ambassador for Hindu Muslim unity."

Khan added that Jinnah's "struggle for a separate nation for Muslims only began when he realised that Muslims would not be treated as equal citizens by the Hindu majority."

It is the second time in a week that Khan has tried to compare the treatment of minorities in his country and India.

On Saturday, Khan asserted that his government is taking steps to ensure that religious minorities in Pakistan get their due rights, which was also a vision of Jinnah.

Addressing an event to highlight the 100-day achievements of the Punjab government in Lahore, Khan said that his government "will show the (Narendra) Modi government how to treat minorities...