Pak PM has yet again demonstrated lack of understanding about India's secular polity: MEA

New Delhi, Feb 9: Hitting back at Imran Khan for his remarks on minorities in India, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said that India has leaders of all faiths who occupy highest Constitutional and official positions. The MEA said that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan lacks understanding about India's secular polity.

"Pakistan Prime Minister's remarks are egregious insult to all citizens of India. Pakistan's PM has yet again demonstrated his lack of understanding about India's secular polity and ethos," ANI quoted an MEA statement as stating.

"India has leaders of all faiths who occupy its highest Constitutional and official positions. Pakistani citizens of non-Islamic faith are barred from occupying high Constitutional offices. Minorities are often turned away from govt bodies like their PMEAC, even in 'naya Pakistan," it further said.

MEA statement comes on the backdrop of recent comments by Imran Khan, who had said that Pakistan treats minorities 'as equal citizens, unlike what is happening in India'.

Recently, Khan had even said that it would continue to support the 'struggle of Kashmiris'.

In January, accusing India of rejecting Islamabad's offer for talks several times, Imran Khan had said two nuclear armed countries should not even think of a war. Khan also said that India would never be able to suppress the rights of the Kashmiri people.

The Indo-Pak ties strained after the terror attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists in 2016 and India's surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The ties further nose-dived in 2017 with no bilateral talks talking place between them.