ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has rejected the US State Department’s arbitrary and selective assessment under a US domestic legislation on religious freedom.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad said that the designation of Pakistan as a “country of particular concern” is completely against the realities on the ground and raises serious doubts about the credibility of the exercise.
“Such subjective designations do not contribute towards promoting the cause of religious freedom worldwide,” the minister said.
It said that Pakistan and the United States have been constructively engaging on the subject at the bilateral level, a fact regrettably overlooked by the US.
The ministry said that Pakistani society is multi-religious and pluralistic with a rich tradition of inter-faith harmony. It added that religious freedom and the protection of the rights of minorities are guaranteed by our Constitution and ensured through a range of legislative, policy and administrative measures.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs further said that the glaring omission of India, where the RSS-BJP regime and their leaders openly disregard religious freedom and discriminate against minority communities in an institutionalized manner, is unfortunate and puts the credibility of the US report into question.
It said that the state complicity in organized violence against the Muslim minority in India is a matter of record. It is no secret that attacks by cow vigilantes and mob lynchings of Indian Muslims take place regularly with complete impunity for the perpetrators.
It also said that systematic demonization, dispossession, marginalization and targeted violence against Muslims using the communal slur of “love jihad” in Hindutva-inspired India has become commonplace.
The minister said that the findings and recommendations of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as well as the US Congressional hearings on the maltreatment of minorities in India and the violation of religious freedom all over the country including in the Muslim-majority Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) were ignored by the US State Department.
It said that Pakistan’s views in this regard have been conveyed to the US side.
“We believe the redressal of the rising trend of intolerance, discrimination, xenophobia, and Islamophobia requires global efforts based on the principles of cooperation and mutual understanding,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
“Pakistan is sincerely playing its part in this endeavour and will continue to do so.”
