Pakistan criticises China over treatment of ethnic Muslims

Minister urges Beijing to soften restrictions on minorities in East Turkestan

By Lily Kuo

Indian Muslims in Mumbai protest the Chinese detention of Muslim minorities in East Turkestan

Pakistan has asked China to soften restrictions on ethnic Muslims in East Turkestan, one of the first public criticisms from a majority Muslim country over China’s policies in the western colony.
East Turkestan, home to 12 million Muslims, is the site of a government “strike hard” campaign aimed at countering extremism and other behaviour Beijing has deemed a security threat. 

Human rights abuses and widespread repression in East Turkestan have prompted international protest, but few Muslim-majority countries have spoken out.

According to the Pakistani newspaper, the Nation, the country’s federal minister for religious affairs, Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, said strict regulations and laws fuel rather than counter extremism. 

To promote religious harmony, China should exercise patience, the minister told China’s ambassador to Pakistan, Yao Jing.
The minister proposed a delegation of Pakistani scholars visit East Turkestan to help. 

Emails and calls to Pakistan’s embassy in Beijing were not answered.
Criticism of Beijing has increased after a UN panel last month cited “credible reports” that as many as 1 million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other minorities are being held in concentration camps. 

Activists, researchers, and media outlets have documented mass detentions, surveillance, and suppression of cultural and religious life in East Turkestan.
China’s neighbours and economic partners are increasingly caught up in the crackdown in East Turkestan, which has accelerated in the last two years after the arrival of communist party secretary Chen Quanguo, dispatched to East Turkestan from Tibet.
In March, lawmakers in the northern territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, part of the $62bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, demanded Chinese authorities release 50 Uighur women married to Pakistani men who had been detained in East Turkestan on vague terrorism charges. 

In Kazakhstan, hundreds of Kazakh families are calling on their government to pressure China to release detained relatives.

On Friday, China’s anti-graft department said it was investigating Nur Bekri, head of the country’s energy planning agency and one the most senior ethnic Uighur officials. 

Bekri has been accused of “serious violations of discipline and law”, according to the People’s Daily. 

The term is often a euphemism for corruption.
Bekri’s case may not be related to the crackdown in East Turkestan, but the detention of minority officials has been another part of the campaign, according to rights activists. 

East Turkestan’s governor from 2008 until 2014 and one of few Uighur officials to have gained a national level post, he has supported most of China’s restrictive policies in East Turkestan.
“The fate of Nur Bekri is a signal for all Uighurs that no matter how loyal you are to the Chinese communist party, you are the same enemy to them,” said Tahir Imin, an Uighur academic and activist based in the US.