TEHRAN - In a significant development, Pakistan has urged its all-weather ally China to relax restrictions on Chinese Muslims living in Xinjiang province, after reports about human rights violations in the province.

Pakistan’s Federal Minister Pir Noorul Haq Qadri during his meeting with the Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing on Friday said that strict regulations and laws fuel extremism and in order to curb intolerance and promote religious harmony China should deal with patience, said a report in The Nation.

The minister proposed that Pakistani religious scholars be allowed to visit the province and play a role in ending extremist ideology and promoting moderate thinking.

The Chinese ambassador promised that his government will soon facilitate Pakistani delegation of religious scholars to visit Xinjiang province, said the report.

According to media reports, Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang are being subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture.

The large Muslim Chinese community has resisted coercive "re-education" efforts by the authorities, which have progressively restricted religious minorities from observing the basic articles of their faith.

A United Nations study estimated recently that China has detained as many as one million Uighurs in internment camps and re-education programs.

This includes programs that focus on psychological indoctrination. There have been reports of water boarding and other forms of torture as well. The detained also include over 50 wives of Pakistanis.