Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent remarks at the 17th extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers that 'Taliban are basically - predominantly - a Pashtun movement' has not gone well with various sections of Pakistan and Afghan society.
In an opinion piece in The News International, a political analyst, said that it seems that the premier has got it terribly wrong while distinguishing between ethnic movements and religious movements.
Although the Afghan Taliban are ethnically Pashtuns, their movement is purely religiously oriented.
This is not the first time that PM Khan has expressed his unenlightened and even ill-informed remarks on Pashtun ethnicity, Qasim Khan writes.
He has been articulating 'derogatory' statements about Pashtun nationalism repeatedly on different platforms, he adds.
The author highlights that it is not the first time that Imran Khan has expressed his unenlightened and even ill-informed remarks on Pashtun ethnicity.
He has been articulating 'derogatory' statements about Pashtun nationalism repeatedly on different platforms, he says.
Two months back, PM Imran Khan called the Pashtuns the 'most xenophobic people on earth'.
Contrary to what Imran Khan has been saying, the Taliban themselves, on various occasions, consider their movement a purely religiopolitical one.
"Pashtuns are not terrorists but the victims of terrorism. PM Imran Khan's consistent dubbing of the Pashtuns with an outlawed terrorist organisation has not only received anger from Pashtun nationalists across the country but also triggered disintegration," he points out.
It is quite ironic that the PM has been condemning Islamophobia in the West while also 'glorifying' the Pashtun's image as that of a violent, terrorist, and xenophobic ethnic group, notes the author.
"So, baseless and blatant racist generalisations - and that too by the head of government - can lead to serious consequences. Rather than resolving their issues and bringing them closer, the PM is continuously putting salt on the wounds of the aggrieved Pashtuns," he says
"Pakistan cannot afford the cost of another 'alienation', and inclusiveness is the only way forward. PM Imran Khan should choose his words really carefully while speaking at public fora because every single word he says not only matters but is counted too," he adds.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor