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After Criticising India, Ilhan Omar Fails to Raise Human Rights Concerns on Pakistan Trip

Pakistani President Arif Alvi told the US Congresswoman how the Modi government is committing “genocide” and “gross human rights violations,” especially against Muslims. 

April 21, 2022

Author

Statecraft Staff
After Criticising India, Ilhan Omar Fails to Raise Human Rights Concerns on Pakistan Trip 
Earlier this month, Ilhan Omar called on US President Joe Biden to criticise Indian PM Narendra Modi’s administration over its human rights record.
IMAGE SOURCE: DUNYA NEWS

United States (US) Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) landed in Islamabad on Tuesday for a four-day visit to Pakistan to discuss the impact of and the need to eliminate Islamophobia. However, Omar failed to raise concern about the treatment of minorities and the rapid deterioration of rights and freedoms in Pakistan, despite criticising the Modi government for its human rights record just days earlier. 

Omar has already met with newly-inducted Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, President Arif Alvi, ousted PM Imran Khan, Speaker Pervez Ashraf, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar.

Sharif’s office has revealed that the US Congresswoman’s maiden visit to the country will also include a visit to Lahore and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) to gain a “greater understanding of Pakistan’s cultural, social, political, and economic potential.”

Sharif told Omar that he hopes her visit will help deepen US-Pakistan ties by strengthening communication between the two legislatures. He highlighted that Islamabad values its “long-standing relationship” with Washington and sought to enhance ties “based on mutual respect trust, and equality.” In this regard, PM Sharif invited greater US trade and investment in the country in order to secure peace and development in the region.

Sharif also talked about Pakistan’s ongoing conflict with India in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), underlining the need to resolve the issue to explore its economic and social progress.

On the same day, Congresswoman Omar also discussed the Kashmir conflict with President Arif Alvi. According to The News Pakistan, Alvi “apprised the visiting dignitary about the atrocities being committed by the PM [Narendra] Modi-led government in India against minorities, particularly Muslims,” and accused the Modi government of “genocide” and “gross human rights violations.”

Omar also addressed the Kashmir issue in her meeting with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, who appreciated Omar’s support for Kashmiris and her opposition to the Indian government’s move to abrogate J&K’s special status back in August 2019.

Islamophobia was also a central topic of discussion during Omar’s meetings with Alvi and Sharif. The PM, in particular, stressed the need to address the surge in Islamophobia across the globe, while the president informed her about Islamabad’s central role in enhancing peace while continuing its fight against terrorism. 

In response, Omar celebrated the role of Pakistan in combating Islamophobia, applauding its resolution on the matter in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in March. Apart from declaring an International Day to Combat Islamophobia, the resolution also urged all countries to organise and support “high-visibility events” to increase awareness about Islamophobia. Although the resolution was adopted, India rejcted the motion, asserting that rather than singling out intolerance against a single religion, members should instead seek to tackle ‘religiophobia,’ or discrimination against all religions.

Omar also discussed her concerns about rising attacks and discrimination against Muslims worldwide with former PM Khan. According to former Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari, the Congresswoman appreciated Khan’s “position” and “work” in combatting Islamophobia, while Khan appreciated Omar’s “courageous and principled” stand on the issue.

However, while Omar stressed on the need to counter the global surge in Islamophobia, singling out India in particular, the US Congresswoman failed to raise any concerns about Pakistan’s own abysmal human rights record and the deterioration of minority rights in the country. 

Although Pakistan has ardently stood in support of Muslim rights, it is plagued by challenges of religious freedom and expression. In fact, it is one of 17 countries in the world that legally requires its head of state to be a Muslim citizen. 

Moreover, several members of the Hindu community have recently and historically been targeted in the country, including attacks on temples and on individuals. In fact, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2021 report listed Pakistan as a ‘Country of Particular Concern.’

According to national rights groups, every year, around 1,000 girls from non-Islamic families are forced to marry and convert to Islam. For instance, late last month, an 18-year-old Hindu girl was killed in Sindh after she refused to convert to Islam and marry a member of the all-powerful Lashari tribe in the region.

Despite these damning statistics, in October 2021, the Pakistani parliament rejected a call to declare forceful conversion as an offence punishable by a life sentence. Similarly, in 2016, the governor of the Sindh province refused to approve a law passed by the state’s National Assembly that penalises forced conversions.

Pakistan is also dealing with the issue of religious extremism. In December, a Sri Lankan factory manager in the eastern Sialkot district was attacked by angry hardliner Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) supporters. Reports suggest that he was tortured and lynched, and eventually set on fire by a mob of over 800 men for allegedly throwing away a poster of the TLP that had Quranic verses on it.

Similarly, in March, the Islamic State’s (ISIS) regional arm in South and Central Asia, ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K), claimed responsibility for the explosion at a Shia mosque in Peshawar that killed 62 and injured over 200.

Furthermore, although Pakistan repeatedly calls for Kashmiris in India to given the right to self-determination, its own government has ignored calls for autonomy from citizens in Balochistan, whose leaders argue that the region does not receive its fair share of revenue from the mineral and petrochemical extraction operations in its region. In response, the government has cracked down on their rights and freedoms, and has been repeatedly accused of carrying out extra-judicial killings.

In fact, on April 16, security forces opened fire against unarmed people in Chagai,  killing six people and leaving several others injured. Several Baloch legislators protested against the government’s “agenda” of killing and targeting Baloch people on Tuesday.

Even the Baloch people who do escape the country are seemingly not spared. Back in December 2020, Canadian authorities found the body of Ms. Karima Baloch—a Pakistani human rights activist from the Baloch community—in Toronto, where she had been living in exile since 2016. The event has sparked an intense debate about the foreign overreach of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the nation’s main intelligence agency.

She was the second Pakistani dissident to die under mysterious circumstances that year. In March of 2020, Sajid Hussain, a Pakistani activist and journalist who often wrote on human rights abuses in Balochistan and was living in Sweden, was reported missing. His body was found almost two months later in a river near the Swedish town of Uppsala; Swedish police, at the time, ruled out any “visible wrongdoing” and the cause of death was ruled to be drowning.

Apart from domestic concerns about minority rights and religious extremism, there is also insurmountable evidence of the Pakistani government perpetrating and fuelling state-sponsored terrorism on Indian soil.

Omar’s silence on these matters is in stark contrast to her position on India and in particular Modi. Speaking at the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s meeting on ‘Restoring American Leadership in the Indo-Pacific’ two weeks ago, Omar called on Biden to criticise the Modi administration over its human rights record and Islamophobia.

The US Congresswoman declared, “What worries me is that this time we seem willing to let Modi be our new Pinochet,” and also expressed concern that the situation could spiral “out of control” like the Rohingya crisis. She highlighted the US’ Indo-Pacific policy, questioning how the aim to promote “a free and open” Indo-Pacific was going to be achieved if the government continued to refrain from criticising the Modi administration.

Meanwhile, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a press conference today that Omar’s visit to POK is a reflection of her “narrow-minded politics” and “violates [India’s] territorial integrity.”

Author

Statecraft Staff

Editorial Team

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