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Pakistan rejects US religious freedom report 'based on faulty assumptions'
[GEO.TV] Pakistain has termed the findings of a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to be based on "faulty assumptions and unsubstantiated allegations", saying it did not reflect the ground realities regarding religious freedom in the country."The document was based on faulty assumptions and unsubstantiated allegations and was non-reflective of the ground realities in Pakistain," Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said during the weekly press briefing on Thursday. The United States’ body for assessing threats to the fundamental right of freedom to practice any religion, in its annual report for 2024, recommended Pakistain as a "country of particular concern for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom". The report cited incidents of violence against religious minorities and "forced conversions" in the country last year, such as the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... mosque blast that killed at least 100 and the murder of a Sikh citizen in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. "In 2023, religious freedom conditions in Pakistain continued to deteriorate. Religious minorities were targeted for their beliefs, including accusations of blasphemy ...the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. Some religions consider it to be a crime. In Pakistain you can commit blasphemy by looking cross-eyed at a Koran... , and were subject to mob violence, lynchings, and forced conversions," the report stated. Besides mentioning attacks and desecration of places of worship, the report also stated the "positive reforms" made by the Pak government such as amendments to blasphemy laws and making Islamic studies a noncompulsory subject for religious minorities. It also called for imposing targeted sanctions on Pak government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom. However, there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened... Baloch said that "Pakistain believes that the USCIRF’s annual exercise of designating countries was unwarranted and futile". "The futility of USCIRF’s recommendations can be gauged by the fact that since 2020 the US State Department has ignored its recommendation to declare India a ’Country of Particular Concern’. She said that this exercise would have been more credible if it did not reflect double standards and geo-political considerations and had a bigger focus on the "glaring rise of Islamophobia  ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...". Posted by: Fred 2024-05-10 |
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