Pakistan

Religious sanctions on Pakistan again recommended by USCIRF

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has again recommended that Pakistan should be declared a ‘‘country of particular concern’’ but the Trump administration, like its predecessors, has refrained.

The USCIRF has been making this recommendation since 2002 but successive US administrations have continued to ignore their advice on the grounds that the proposed designation will fail to promote religious freedom in the country.
On Dec 22, 2017, the US Secretary of State placed Pakistan on a Special Watch List for “having engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom”. The move caused speculations in the media that this year the administration may declare Pakistan a country of particular interest, triggering a set of new sanctions. But Pakistan escaped the designation this year as well.
The report, however, notes that last year at least 50 individuals were imprisoned on blasphemy charges in Pakistan, with 17 of them receiving death sentences. The annual US report on religious freedom also notes that authorities in Pakistan continue to enforce blasphemy laws, “whose punishment ranges from life in prison to the death sentence for a range of charges”.
The report warns that religious persecution remains a global issue, and in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Iran and Russia minorities still face widespread violations of religious freedom.
The report singles out an incident in April 2017, when a mob shot and beat to death student Mashal Khan at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, “following an accusation of blasphemy later deemed by investigators to be false”.
It notes that throughout 2017, unidentified attackers in Pakistan targeted and killed Shias, Hazaras and Ahmadis in attacks believed to be religiously motivated.
Attacks against the Hazara ethnic group increased during the year and in five separate incidents, unidentified assailants shot and killed 15 members of the Hazara Shia Muslim community.
Assailants also killed at least seven members of the Ahmadi community in multiple incidents that appeared to be targeted attacks.
The report notes that the Urdu-language media in Pakistan, continued to show bias in reporting on minority religious groups, including multiple instances in which media used inflammatory language or made inappropriate references to minorities.

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