ISLAMABAD , DEC 27 : Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said Monday the extremist elements in Afghanistan posed a threat to Pakistan.

“Women are not allowed to travel alone in Afghanistan, and they cannot go to school as well,” he said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of a photo exhibition on the life of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the Pak-China centre.

The federal minister’s comments came a day after the Afghan Taliban said that women seeking to travel long distances should not be offered transport unless they are accompanied by a close male relative.

Meanwhile, condemning the tragic incident of Sialkot, the minister said the entire nation was united after it. On the contrary, he said such incidents with Muslims “were a norm in India.”

He said today’s New York Times carried a front-page article “exposing atrocities” being committed against the Christian community in India.

The information minister said Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP had made the lives of all minorities miserable in India.

Talking about the vision of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal, he said they wanted to establish an Islamic welfare state where Muslims and minorities could live freely and peacefully irrespective of their caste and creed.

The information minister opined that today the biggest challenge was to reclaim Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan, and Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to transform the country into a state in line with the founding father’s vision.

Chaudhry said Quaid-e-Azam made his vision clear of Pakistan in his three major speeches — one in the Constituent Assembly, his addresses to the Army officers, and the bureaucracy.