US religious freedom body finds conditions for Pakistan minorities 'worsening', urges strong action

Finding "a worsening religious and political climate of fear, intolerance, and violence" for minorities in Pakistan, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has asked President Donald Trump's administration to take strong measures against the Islamic Republic.

It urged the US government to impose sanctions on Pakistani officials and agencies responsible for the "serious violations of religious freedoms" in that country, freezing their assets and barring them from entering the US.

"Religious minority communities -- particularly Christians, Hindus, and Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims -- continued to bear the brunt of persecution and prosecutions under Pakistan's strict blasphemy law and to suffer violence from both the police and mobs," the religious freedom body said in its annual report.

"Those responsible for such violence rarely faced legal consequences," it said.

To counter these recurring developments, the commission asked the government to "redesignate Pakistan as a 'country of particular concern (CPC)'," for its "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom."

It urged the government to lift the existing waiver for Pakistan so that it can take the legally mandated actions due to its designation as a CPC.

The State Department has in the past issued Islamabad waivers citing what it stated was the need to maintain a "constructive relationship for broader strategic goals."

The USCIRF found that the blasphemy laws were responsible for much of the violence against minorities and suggested several steps the US should take to ensure minorities in Pakistan are protected.

"Accusations of blasphemy and subsequent mob violence continued to severely impact religious minority communities," it said.

It asked the US government to "enter into a binding agreement with the Pakistani government" to protect minorities that would require Islamabad to repeal blasphemy laws and release prisoners held under the blasphemy laws or for their religious beliefs.

Till the laws are repealed, according to the USCIRF, the accused should be eligible for bail, and those making false accusations should be prosecuted under the country's penal code.

Pakistan should also be made to hold "accountable individuals who incite or participate in vigilante violence, targeted killings, forced conversion, and other religiously based crimes," it said.

Citing a report by a United Nations expert group, the USCIRF said that there was a 'worsening pattern of forced conversions among Pakistan's minority Christian and Hindu women and girls."

The experts found that "local authorities often dismiss forced marriages, in which women and girls are obliged to convert to Islam, and the court system likewise validates them," it added.