{"id":45417,"date":"2024-01-08T17:21:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T17:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/pakistan-rejects-its-biased-and-arbitrary-placement-by-us-on-religious-freedom-watch-list\/"},"modified":"2024-01-08T17:21:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T17:21:54","slug":"pakistan-rejects-its-biased-and-arbitrary-placement-by-us-on-religious-freedom-watch-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pakistan-rejects-its-biased-and-arbitrary-placement-by-us-on-religious-freedom-watch-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan rejects its \u2018biased and arbitrary\u2019 placement by US on religious freedom watch list"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Pakistan on Monday \u201ccategorically rejected\u201d its designation as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern (CPC)\u201d by the US State Department under the International Religious Freedom Act.<\/p>\n<p>On January 4, a <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/religious-freedom-designations\/\">press release<\/a> from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on religious freedom designations categorised Pakistan, along with China, Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as a CPC for \u201chaving engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Reacting to the designation, the Foreign Office (FO) today issued a press release, saying it was \u201cdeeply dismayed\u201d that the categorisation was based on \u201cbiased and arbitrary assessment\u201d and was \u201cdetached from ground realities\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It added that Pakistan was a \u201cpluralistic country, with a rich tradition of interfaith harmony\u201d, further saying that the country had undertaken \u201cwide-ranging measures to promote religious freedom and protect minority rights\u201d in accordance with its Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe note with deep concern that India, the biggest and serial violator of religious freedom, has once again been excluded from the US State Department\u2019s designation list.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1803585\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis is despite clear recommendation by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as public concerns raised by international human rights constituencies, about India\u2019s maltreatment of religious minorities. This conspicuous omission raises serious questions about the credibility, transparency and objectivity of the entire process,\u201d the FO said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1754289\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The FO said it was convinced that such \u201cdiscriminatory, unilateral and subjective exercises\u201d were counterproductive and undermined the shared objective of the US and Pakistan to advance religious freedom globally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPakistan strongly believes that the contemporary challenge of religious intolerance, xenophobia and Islamophobia can be best countered through constructive engagement and collective efforts based on mutual understanding and respect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith a similar spirit, Pakistan has bilaterally engaged US. Pakistan\u2019s concern about the designation is being conveyed to the US side,\u201d the FO concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan has previously been categorised as a CPC in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1724407\">2022<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1594876\">2020<\/a> as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1450827\">2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan on Monday \u201ccategorically rejected\u201d its designation as a \u201cCountry of Particular Concern (CPC)\u201d by the US State Department under the International Religious Freedom Act. On January 4, a press release from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on religious freedom designations categorised Pakistan, along with China, Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Saudi [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/081942401bfe747.jpg?r=194343","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}