Pakistan has categorically rejected its designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) by the US government. Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch expressed deep dismay over the designation which is an altogether biased, and arbitrary assessment, detached from ground realities in the country. According to the Spokesperson, India is the biggest and serial violator of religious freedom in the South Asian region and has once again been excluded from the US State Department’s designation list despite repeated recommendations by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) over the past multiple years along with huge outcry by the international human rights organisations about India’s blatant maltreatment of religious minorities in recent years.
Recently, the US Secretary of State has designated several countries including Pakistan, Cuba, China, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for allegedly having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedoms in their nations. Interestingly, weeks ago, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the governmental body tasked with monitoring human rights and religious freedoms across the globe and offering recommendations for suitable measures to the government against alleged violators specifically recommended the Biden Administration to designate India as Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for the current year because of persistent poor record in religious freedoms and human rights in its country. Yet, Biden’s aides did not move against their strategic ally, instead, Washington used an arm-twisting technique against Pakistan to get Islamabad’s cooperation to protect its political and security interests in the region.
Historically, the United States has always used civil liberties, human and religious rights as well as democracy for the protection and enhancement of its strategic interests in all parts of the world, whilst these sane values had been used against dictatorial regimes and publically elected government as pressure tactics to achieve its political and military objectives in different countries. Pakistan is an all-time victim of the US policies, as the decades-long dictatorial rules in the South Asian country had been subjected to Washington’s coercion in the name of democracy while the political governments ever been harrassed by the use of opposition and religious freedom issues in the country which equally exist in Europe and America. Previously, Pakistan had been designated by the United States as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) concerning international religious freedoms in 2018, 2021, and 2022.
Historically, the bilateral relations between Pakistan and the US have always been transactional, while Islamabad faced sanctions/ restrictions on economic and military aid from Washington at frequent intervals throughout the past. US Diplomats commonly term this strategy as the Carrot and Stick policy which is often used by US administrations against its allies that have some kind of dependence on the United States. Although, this designation is political several other countries including India have not been designated by the Biden administration because of strategic interests attached to those nations. Pakistan is a pluralistic country, with a rich tradition of interfaith harmony. The constitution of Pakistan categorically protects minorities’ rights and stresses wide-ranging measures to promote religious freedom. Yet, the government must review those events that often caused embarrassment for the country at the international level. Individual incidents of hate crimes and religious bigotry against minorities including the burning of churches in Gujranwala and Sikh killings in FATA and Peshawar are surely condemnable and need preemptive measures in the future. The government of Pakistan is actively working with the global community to counter the contemporary challenge of religious intolerance, hate crimes, and Islamophobia, those contacts and collaboration need to be expanded to counter such unpleasant situations in the future.
