ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan is leaving for a four-day visit to China on Feb 3 (Thursday) the special invitation of the Chinese President Xi to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
The PM will attend the mega event to express solidarity with Beijing as some western countries led by the United States have announced diplomatic boycott of the forthcoming Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
During the visit, the Prime Minister will also hold bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.
According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the visit will further bolster bilateral ties between the two countries.
A few days ago, Premier Khan said the “selective silence” of the West on human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir was “deafening” as he called it as their “double standards” in opposing China’s alleged maltreatment of Muslims in in Xinjiang.
PM said, “What we find very difficult to swallow in Pakistan is that while they talk about Uighurs, they do not talk much in the West about Indian Occupied Kashmir because the worst violations of human rights are being reported there by Indian forces.”
Prime Minister Khan expressed these views while talking to Chinese journalists in Islamabad today ahead of his 4-day visit to China.
He said, “Somehow there is selective silence about human rights in IoK where around nine million people are basically living in the worst conditions — [it’s] almost an open prison — being controlled by force by 800,000 Indian troops. On one side they (western countries) talk about Xinjiang, but on the other, there is a silence on serious human rights violations in IoK.”
Pakistani premier said that while there was a lot of criticism from the West about the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, Pakistan’s ambassador to China had visited the region and reported that “this is not true on the ground.”
PM Khan was keen to attend the Beijing Olympics, saying it would be his first time experience and said it was very “admirable” for China to go forward with the mega event at a time when the pandemic had adversely affected many sporting events globally.
He hailed the “deep relationship” between Pakistan and China, saying it had only strengthened over time.
PM Khan said, “There is a feeling in Pakistan that China always stood with us in times of need and supported us during difficult times. Similarly, Pakistan also always stood with China.”
He added that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project had further linked the countries and also entered phase two of its operations, which focus on industrial development. He said Pakistan was looking forward to collaborating with China on many more fronts such as sports, information technology, agriculture, poverty alleviation, development and city planning and management.
