Pakistan rejects US State Department's unilateral & arbitrary designation under religious freedom report

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has rejected the US State Department's unilateral and arbitrary designation under the religious freedom report announced on December 20, by declaring that the pronouncement was not only detached from ground realities of Pakistan.

The foreign office spokesperson said in a press release that "The designation is reflective of selective targeting of countries and thus unlikely to be helpful to the professed cause of advancing religious freedom".

It said Pakistan was a multi-religious and pluralistic country where people of all faiths enjoyed religious freedom under the constitutional protections.

"All branches -- the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary -- have made concerted efforts to ensure that all citizens of Pakistan, irrespective of faith, denomination, caste or creed, can profess and practice their religion in full freedom. The higher judiciary of the country has given landmark judgments directing on ensuring the sanctity and security of places of worship of minorities," it maintained.

It said Pakistan had also engaged with the international community, including the United States, for better understanding on religious freedom issues.

"It is regrettable that this constructive engagement has been overlooked," the spokesperson added.

Challenges to religious freedom were a global concern and only cooperative efforts could help address them. For its part, Pakistan has also raised concerns over the growing trend of Islamophobia in many Western countries including the United States.

"Working together in an environment of trust and understanding is the best way forward in realizing the objective of promoting and protecting religious freedom," the press release added.

It further said the subjectivity and bias of the State Department's designations are further illustrated by the conspicuous omission of India, the biggest violator of religious freedom.

It said that the US Congress has held two hearings and more than seventy US legislators had publicly expressed concerns over India's treatment of Kashmiris and prolonged suppression of their fundamental rights in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K).

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, the UN Secretary-General in New York, and several European Parliaments had similarly expressed their concerns, it added.

In today's India, people belonging to minority communities were being lynched, persecuted and killed with impunity.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the recently adopted Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were the latest examples of the Indian government's actions to discriminate against people and evidently paved the way towards cleansing of society on the basis of religion, it said.