Citizenship bill violates bilateral deals with Pakistan: Imran Khan

 In his first reaction since the Lok Sabha passed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Monday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan described the move as being part of the RSS's “Hindu rashtra design”. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill allows for granting Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they had been subjected to religious persecution in those countries.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Imran Khan wrote, “We strongly condemn Indian Lok Sabha citizenship legislation which violates all norms of int human rights law & bilateral agreements with Pak. It is part of the RSS 'Hindu Rashtra' design of expansionism propagated by the fascist Modi Govt.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the Pakistan Foreign Office also condemned the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, describing it as being in “complete violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants on elimination of all forms of discrimination based on religion or belief”.

In a statement, the Pakistan Foreign Office noted, “The Lok Sabha legislation is also in complete contravention of various bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India, particularly the one concerning security and rights of minorities in the respective countries. The latest legislation is another major step towards the realisation of the concept of ‘Hindu Rashtra’, idealised and relentlessly pursued by the rightwing Hindu leaders for several decades. It is driven by a toxic mix of an extremist hindutva ideology and hegemonic ambitions in the region.”

The Pakistan Foreign Office referred to the Gujarat riots of 2002 and incidents of lynching of Muslims by cow vigilantes as being “hallmarks of the new India ruled by the proponents of the extremist Hindu ideology”. Pakistan also referred to the continuing security clampdown in Kashmir in its critique of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, saying the legislation “exposed the hollowness of the [Indian] claims to ‘secularism’ and ‘democracy’”.

One of the bilateral agreements purportedly referred to by Imran Khan appears to be the “agreement regarding security and rights of minorities", also known as the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement.

This agreement was signed in April 1950 between then prime ministers of the two nations, Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan. The agreement allowed for refugees to return to their erstwhile homelands to dispose off property, allowed for looted property to be returned, protected against forced conversions and upheld minority rights.

While presenting the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah referred to the Nehru-Liaquat Agreement, declaring Pakistan had failed to abide by the terms of the accord. He cited the drastic fall in the population of non-Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh since 1947.