WASHINGTON, May 7: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has acknowledged Pakistan government’s move to abolish the separate electorate system and efforts undertaken to prevent militant religious groups and religious schools from promoting violence or possessing weapons.
The commission’s acknowledgement comes in its third annual report released to the media at a news conference at the Washington Press Club on Monday afternoon. The commission was set up by the US government in 1998 to monitor religious freedom in other countries and advise the president, the secretary of state and the Congress on how best it can be promoted.
Welcoming steps taken by the Pakistan government to end religion-based separate electorates, improve the education system, and to curb violence in the name of religion, the commission hopes that action will also be taken to eliminate abuses under the blasphemy laws and laws targeting Ahmadis.
It refers to recent attacks on churches in Pakistan, and says while steps have been taken to investigate the incidents, these have not been adequate to hold accountable those responsible for the attacks.
On India, which had refused to let the commission members visit the country, the report takes note of the Gujarat riots in which 800 people were killed, mostly Muslims. It says the commission has observed the communal rioting in India since February with great concern, and adds: “The commission continues to urge the US government to press the Indian authorities to exercise their power to halt the atrocities and violence, bring the perpetrators to justice, and do more to root out the causes of religious intolerance, especially by resolving the impasse over the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.”
The mosque was destroyed in 1992 by Hindu zealots instigated by some leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which currently heads the ruling coalition in India.
The commission’s chairman, Michael K. Young, dean of the George Washington University’s Law School, said the campaign against terrorism had changed America’s relationships with many countries, but the commission had cautioned the administration that the changed relationships should not undermine human rights concerns. In this connection, the report, which devotes considerable attention to the absence of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, points out that despite the commission’s recommendation that the Gulf kingdom should be placed on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), the state department had so far failed to do so. The existing CPC list includes Burma, China, Iran, Iraq and Sudan. The commission also wants Turkmenistan on the list, and has heavily criticised Uzebekistan.
Asked whether Israel and the Occupied Territories, which are not mentioned in the report, were also investigated by the commission, Dr Young said members had travelled through the region and conducted interviews, and the situation there came under investigation and study. He said the commission concentrated its attention on regions that were not getting enough attention, while Israel and the Occupied Territories were now the centre of international attention.