*ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has responded back strongly to the United StatesState Department report.*
*Pakistan has rejected the United States State Department’s annual reporton religious freedom in the country and urged the US to engage inself-introspection.*
The report has been termed politically motivated in a statement issued bythe Foreign Office. “Besides the clear biases reflected from thesedesignations, there are serious questions on the credentials andimpartiality of the self-proclaimed jury involved in this unwarrantedexercise,” said the statement.
The statement said Pakistan is a multi-religious and pluralistic societywhere people of diverse faiths and denominations live together. Around 4%of the country’s total population comprises citizens belonging toChristian, Hindu, Budhists and Sikh faiths, said the statement, adding thatensuring equal treatment of minorities and their enjoyment of human rightswithout any discrimination is the cardinal principle of the Constitution.
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According to a statement issued on Tuesday, US Secretary of State MikePompeo designated Pakistan and nine other countries as “countries ofparticular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998for having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, [and] egregiousviolations of religious freedom”.
