{"id":42228,"date":"2018-01-05T22:38:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T17:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=42228"},"modified":"2018-01-05T22:38:19","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T17:38:19","slug":"pakistan-rejects-us-move-over-religious-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=42228","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan rejects US move over religious freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Islamabad, Jan. 5 (TNS):<\/strong> Pakistan rejected on Friday its designation in the \u201cspecial watch list for severe violations of religious freedom\u201d by the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes on the heels of the US suspending military aid to Pakistan, demanding Islamabad\u00a0to do more against Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe report is not based on objective criteria,\u201d Foreign Office spokesperson\u00a0Dr Mohammad Faisal said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe protection of religious freedom is vital to peace, stability, and prosperity,\u201d the US State Department had said in a statement. \u201cThese designations are aimed at improving the respect for religious freedom in these countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This placement on special watch list is a new categorisation and we would be seeking clarification from the US regarding its rationale and implications,\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n<p>He said\u00a0the designation overlooked the significant achievements of Pakistan in the area of human rights.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan, the spokesperson said, is committed to the promotion and protection of human rights including the right of religious freedom under its Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>He highlighted that wide-ranging legislative, institutional and administrative measures had been taken by the government to ensure full implementation of guarantees afforded by the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Faisal said the international community is aware of steps being taken by Pakistan that have brought about positive changes on ground.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is surprising that countries that have a well known record of systematic persecution of religious minorities have not been included in the list,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cThis reflects the double standards and political motives behind the listing and hence lacks credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Faisal said Pakistan will continue to work with the international community to ensure that internationally agreed standards on religious freedom are observed in Pakistan and the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad, Jan. 5 (TNS): Pakistan rejected on Friday its designation in the \u201cspecial watch list for severe violations of religious freedom\u201d by the United States. The move comes on the heels of the US suspending military aid to Pakistan, demanding Islamabad\u00a0to do more against Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. \u201cThe report is not based [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,23],"tags":[118,589],"class_list":["post-42228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad","category-national","tag-islamabad","tag-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42229,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42228\/revisions\/42229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}