Pakistan remains country of ‘particular concern’; no sanctions due to ‘national interest’: US

Pakistan does not need counsel by any individual country how to protect the rights of its minorities, asserts FO

The United States clarified on Wednesday that although Pakistan remains on the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list, there will be no additional sanctions other than those already placed on Pakistan owing to “national interest”.

"Saudi Arabia was – is in the waived category, along with Pakistan, on a national interest area," said US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback.

He added that former secretary of state Rex Tillerson had placed Pakistan on a special watch list to warn them of their likelihood of being placed on the list of CPC. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then made that determination and identified Pakistan as CPC in the hopes that the new leadership would work to improve the situation.

Pompeo issued Pakistan a waiver from CPC sanctions as required by the "important national interest of the United States" said a spokesperson from the US Embassy in Islamabad.

Earlier, Islamabad angrily rejected as “unilateral and politically motivated” a Trump administration move to designate Pakistan among the countries that violate religious freedoms.

The Foreign Office (FO) issued a statement early Wednesday after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had designated Pakistan among “countries of particular concern” in a congressionally-mandated annual report.



The Foreign Office spokesperson emphasised that Pakistan did not “need counsel by any individual country on how to protect the rights of its minorities.”

“Besides the clear biases reflected from these designations, there are serious questions on the credentials and impartiality of the self-proclaimed jury involved in this unwarranted exercise,” he said.

The spokesperson elaborated on the country’s multi-religious and pluralistic society. “Around 4 per cent of our total population comprises citizens belonging to Christian, Hindu, Buddhists and Sikh faiths. Ensuring equal treatment of minorities and their enjoyment of human rights without any discrimination is the cardinal principle of the Constitution of Pakistan.”

He noted that special seats were reserved for “minorities in [Pakistan’s] parliament to ensure their adequate representation and voice in the legislation process”.

“The higher judiciary of the country has made several landmark decisions to protect the properties and places of worships of minorities,” the spokesperson said.

Observing that the “proponents of human rights worldwide close their eyes to the systematic persecution of minorities subjected to alien domination and foreign occupation such as in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir”, the spokesperson urged for “an honest self-introspection” to know the “causes of the exponential rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the US”.



Pompeo had placed Pakistan on special watchlist year earlier — a step short of the designation — in what had been seen as a US tactic to press Islamabad into reforms.

The timing of the full designation may be jarring as it comes after Pakistan moved to resolve its most high-profile case, with the Supreme Court in October releasing Aasia Bibi — a Christian woman on death row for eight years for blasphemy.

The government recently charged a hardline cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi with terrorism and sedition after he led violent protests against Aasia’s acquittal.