FO, opposition reject US decision to place Pakistan on CPC list

FO, opposition reject US decision to place Pakistan on CPC list

FO, opposition reject US decision to place Pakistan on CPC list

Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar addressing a weekly press briefing in Islamabad. Image: Radio Pakistan

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The government of Pakistan on Thursday rejected the US State Department’s decision to redesignate it to the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).

Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar, during a weekly press briefing, said that Pakistan rejects the US State Department’s arbitrary and selective assessment under U.S. domestic legislation on religious freedom.

“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 this exercise,” the FO spokesperson said. “Such subjective designations do not contribute towards promoting the cause of religious freedom worldwide.” The spokesperson added that Pakistan and the US have been constructively engaging on the subject at the bilateral level, a fact regrettably overlooked by the US in its decision.

He maintained that Pakistani society is multi-religious and pluralistic with a rich tradition of inter-faith harmony. “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 FO observed.

The FO spokesperson further 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 including in the Muslim-majority, Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), were ignored by the US State Department.

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“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. Pakistan is sincerely playing its part in this endeavour and will continue to do so,” he concluded.

Earlier, on Wednesday The United States (US) Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken redesignated Pakistan as a country of particular concern (CPC) for violating religious freedom and had also rebranded the Taliban as an entity of particular concern.

It is pertinent to mention that countries are placed in this category for allegedly engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, (and) egregious violations of religious freedom.”

Secretary Blinken, in his statement, said that he is designating Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, the DPRK, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern for having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.

“I am also placing Algeria, Comoros, Cuba, and Nicaragua on a Special Watch List for governments that have engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom,” he said on Wednesday.

According to the details, Pakistan was first placed on this list by the Trump administration in 2018 and they retained Pakistan in 2020 as well. The current Biden administration, which came to power in January this year, has retained the old list with two changes, adding Russia and removing Sudan from the CPC category.

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Opposition, geo-political expert rejects US decision

US decision to redesignate Pakistan into the country of particular concern received severe criticism from the country’s opposition as well as Geo-political experts, Speaking to Bol News, Senior PML-N Leader and former Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, MNA Khurram Dastagir said that the exclusion of India from the list of countries with systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom exposes the hypocrisy of the US list of concern.

He maintained that the Modi government’s depredations are no longer a matter of opinion. India’s systematic violation of the human rights of minorities, as well as discrimination on basis of religion, are not merely a series of reprehensible events. They have now been codified into laws.

For Khurram, Religious freedom in Pakistan is first and foremost a matter of concern for its citizens and their elected representatives.

As the largest party in opposition, PMLN will fight this worthy battle nationwide; inside as well as outside the federal and provincial legislatures,” he concluded.

Jan Achakzai, a geopolitical analyst, a politician from Balochistan and ex-adviser to the Balochistan government was of the view that it is one of the political tools in US foreign policy to sanction a country on moral and religious grounds.

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“The fact is that the US never cared for religious freedoms and Human rights in conducting real foreign policy options,” Jan said while adding that their geo-political and Geo-strategist goals are derived by realpolitik.

For him, the US invasions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya curtailed human and religious rights and dignity of life. So political and religious sermons should not be taken seriously.

Whereas, Dr Hassan Shehzad, who is an expert on geo-politics, and also teaches at International Islamic University Islamabad, said that according to the US Department of State, International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) was passed in 1998 under which Annual Report on International Religious Freedom is prepared. Secretary of State is authorized under this law to designate a country as “Country of Particular Concern” if “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom, including violations such as torture, degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges, abduction or clandestine detention, or other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty…” is reported there.

Dr Shehzad was of the view that though the effort is made to put that country back on track to normalization is made through non-economic ways, “an economic measure generally must be imposed” if the improvement is not made.

As Pakistan has retained its position on this list since 2018, it is going to evoke economic measures generally known as sanctions. The country has also failed to get off the grey list of FATF due to the prevalence of mechanisms to promote extremisms in addition to many other causes.

He recalled that the European Union too has not extended GPS Plus status for Pakistan without making many observations in its reports about extremism and violations of human rights.

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Way forward for the government?

Dr Shehzad believes that things are not going in the right direction. “The government has two options to deal with it,” he said “The right way is to roll back the mechanisms, formal and informal, it has put in place to promote religious extremism.”

“Education has recently been Talibanized heavily and no wonder that the world is now putting Pakistan and Taliban in one bracket. Same is the story of the media,” he observed.

He maintained that an army of journalists has been engaged to justify the butchery Taliban have done in Afghanistan. In the same breath, they also demand the world to give Taliban money so that they could make arrangements for winter in Afghanistan,” he lamented.

“I do not know what kind of grass they smoke. If Afghans are spared by winter, they will be savaged by the Taliban. Once they eat up all Afghan resources, the Taliban will shed blood in the streets of Pakistan as has been the case in the past,” Dr Shehzad feared.

He said that all this misplaced argument and actions are needed to be rolled back. “But the government is unlikely to do it. It is likely to go for the second option, which is the spread of conspiracy theories. It has churned out enough conspiracy theories about FATF and EU,” he commented.

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“The US remains its favourite target of conspiracy theories. The people of Pakistan are and will continue suffering from its extremist policies both at home and abroad. The sooner the government understands that it is not but deceiving itself, the better,” Dr Shehzad concluded.

Agreeing with Dr Shehzad, PML-N legislator and close aide of Maryam Nawaz, Hina Pervez Butt, while criticising the government for not taking stakeholders on board, said, “The government caved in on the matter of Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), an outfit it had registered as a terrorist itself and it is negotiating with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has made a lot of Pakistanis very angry as well.”

For her, this [PTI] government’s actions are weakening and not strengthening Pakistan’s case. “As they [PTI government] have taken these unilateral decisions without any consultation with any stakeholders whatsoever,” she said.

She feared that these decisions would also impact proceedings against Pakistan at FATF.

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