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Updated: Sep 15, 2019 18:41 IST

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has said that people living in Pakistan were very happy and a different image of the real situation in Pakistan was presented in India for political gains. Pawar, quoted by news agency ANI, further praised Pakistan, saying that he received very warm welcome on his visits there.

“People here say Pakistanis are facing injustice and are unhappy, but it is not true. Such statements are being made only for political gains without understanding the actual situation in Pakistan,” Pawar said according to the ANI.

Pawar’s Pakistan praise comes even as the defence minister Rajnath Singh slammed Pakistan’s human rights records on Saturday and Sunday and said it discriminated against all minorities including Sikhs, Sindhis and Balochs. Singh also accused Islamabad of treating Muslims who migrated from India as second class citizens.

“It is not hidden from the world what is happening in Pakistan with the Sindhi community, Sikh community, Balochs, and other minority communities. Pakistan which is raising ‘Human rights violation in UN Conference’ should first look at what is happening in their country,” Singh said in a tweet on Sunday.

As per ANI, Sharad Pawar added that he had visited Pakistan on several occasions and was accorded hospitality.

“Pakistanis believe that even if they can’t go to India to meet their relatives, they can treat an Indian as their relative,” said Pawar, according to ANI.

India had only last week at the United Nations Human Rights Council accused Pakistan of doublespeak over human rights, and said that Islamabad’s song and dance over the Jammu and Kashmir situation post the abrogation of Article 370 was a bid to distract international attention from persecution and elimination of religious and ethnic minorities in its own backyard.

Pakistan’s rhetoric “will not distract international attention from Pakistan’s persecution and elimination of religious and ethnic minorities—be it the Christians, Sikhs, Shias, Ahmadiyas and Hindus. This is the reason that Pakistan no longer publishes official statistics about its minorities as India does,” Indian diplomat, Vimarsh Aryan had said.

Maharashtra goes to poll in October and Pawar’s party, NCR is fighting the assembly polls in alliance with the Congress party. Several of NCP and Congress leaders in Maharashtra have deserted and joined the ruling BJP.