Observing that Islamabad has failed to protect freedom of religion or belief, the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Thursday demanded Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declare Pakistan ‘country of particular concern’.
“As human-rights concern with serious security implications, the need for greater respect for religious freedom and related rights should be an integral issue in the US bilateral relationship with Pakistan,” USCIRF Chairman Leonard Leo and its commissioner Felice Gaer said in an op-ed in The Hill. “We have identified this as a problem, and the US should be devising and demanding solutions. While it is complicated and awkward to do so in the case of an ally, the abuses and threats posed by a growing religious extremism threaten both countries,” they wrote.
The USCIRF said designating Pakistan “a ‘country of particular concern’ will help the US to turn its efforts to new solutions and practices to address Pakistan’s endemic religious freedom problems”. The assassinations of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, and federal minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti underscored Pakistan’s failure to protect the right to freedom of thought, conscience or religion for even its most prominent citizens.