US adds Pakistan to blacklist for religious freedom violations; Pakistan response in Post #7

[Abdullah719]

The United States said on Tuesday it has added Pakistan to its blacklist of countries that violate religious freedom, ramping up pressure over the treatment of minorities in the country.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had designated Pakistan among “countries of particular concern” in a congressionally mandated annual report, meaning the US government is obliged to exert pressure to end freedom violations.

Pompeo a year earlier had placed Pakistan on a special watch list — a step short of the designation — in what had been seen as a US tactic to press Islamabad into reforms.

“In far too many places across the globe, individuals continue to face harassment, arrests or even death for simply living their lives in accordance with their beliefs,” Pompeo said in a statement.

“The United States will not stand by as spectators in the face of such oppression,” he said.

Nine countries remained for another year on the list of Countries of Particular Concern — China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. They are accused of having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom”.

The US removed one country from the list — Uzbekistan — but kept it on the watch list.

Pompeo also put on the watch list Russia, adding another item of contention to the relationship between the two powers.

Russia has increasingly drawn concern in the US over its treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses, the heterodox Christian group known for proselytization.

Also on the watch list was the Comoros, the Indian Ocean archipelago that is almost exclusively Sunni Muslim.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1450827

 

[Varun]

Pakistan should respond by adding the US to a blacklist of countries which needlessly invade other countries they have no business in.

 

[Devilsadvokat]

I'd take the Amreeki more seriously if they started with KSA. I went to Saudi once for a couple of weeks, what struck me was the landed Arabs were just Brown Americans, with the fat bellies and phat cars.

 

[Gilly]

I'd take the Amreeki more seriously if they started with KSA. I went to Saudi once for a couple of weeks, what struck me was the landed Arabs were just Brown Americans, with the fat bellies and phat cars.

KSA is on the list.

Nine countries remained for another year on the list of Countries of Particular Concern — China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. They are accused of having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom”.

 

[Devilsadvokat]

KSA is on the list.

Then we amongst friends.

 

[Varun]

Then we amongst our overlords.

Edited for accuracy.

 

[MenInG]

As Washington announced that Islamabad had been added to a list of violators of religious freedoms, Pakistan on Wednesday rejected the "unilateral and politically motivated pronouncement", and suggested the US introspect over the "exponential rise" of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in America.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had on Tuesday said that Pakistan was joining Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, North Korea, Burma, Eritrea, Sudan and Tajikistan on a list of countries that have "engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom".

The Foreign Office (FO) today issued Islamabad's reaction to the listing, saying: "Pakistan rejects the US State Department's unilateral and politically motivated pronouncement ... Besides the clear biases reflected from these designations, there are serious questions over the credentials and impartiality of the self-proclaimed jury involved in this unwarranted exercise."

The FO explained measures that the government had taken to safeguard the rights of its citizens, including the use of legal and administrative mechanisms, adding that Islamabad submits compliance reports on its obligations with respect to fundamental freedoms as a party to seven of nine core human rights treaties.

How Pakistan safeguards its minorities, according to FO:

Equal treatment of minorities enshrined in Constitution
Special seats reserved for minorities in Parliament
National Commission on Human Rights addresses concerns over violations of minorities' rights
Successive governments make protection of minorities a priority
Judiciary has made several landmark decisions to protect the properties and places of worship of minority communities
"Pakistan does not need counsel by any individual country how to protect the rights of its minorities," the statement asserted.

The FO suggested that honest introspection on Washington's part would have been a timely move in order to ascertain the causes behind the exponential rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the US.

"Sadly, the proponents of human rights worldwide close their eyes to the systematic persecution of minorities subjected to alien domination and foreign occupation such as in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir," the statement added.

The FO described Pakistan as a "multi-religious and pluralistic society where people of diverse faiths and denominations live together."

Last year, Pompeo had placed Pakistan on a special watch list — a step short of the designation — which is used to persuade the targeted nation into introducing reforms suggested in annual US reports for religious freedom.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1450996/p...sting-as-violator-of-religious-freedoms-by-us

 

[Hadi Rizvi]

Finally an FO that stands up to bullies.

 

[Third_Umpire]

Not that we need to accept anything any foreign country says, but the fact is we do not protect minorities. Asia Bibi case is far too recent for even the most fickle minded of us to forget.