A presidential waiver has saved Pakistan from economic sanctions by theUnited States (US) after recently being placed among countries thatallegedly violate religious freedom.

On 2 December, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, had nominatedPakistan as one of the ten ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ (CPC) underits International Religious Freedom Act which includes Burma, China,Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, SaudiArabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.——————————

On Wednesday, the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom,Samuel D. Brownback, briefed the media on America’s actions againstreligious freedom violators and announced specific sanctions anddual-hatted sanctions for Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, and North Korea tosatisfy the International Religious Freedom Act’s presidential actionrequirement.

However, Brown announced that certain countries, including Pakistan, havebeen granted a special Presidential Waiver due to matters of nationalsecurity.

“Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan have beengiven a waiver for the presidential action requirement, determining thatthere were important national interests of the United States, requiring theexercise of the waiver authority,” he announced.