Pakistan on Wednesday rejected the US decision to include the country in a blacklist of “countries that violate religious freedom” and summoned a senior US diplomat to the Foreign Ministry to lodge a strong protest.Diplomatic sources said that a demarche was handed to the US official, which elaborated on constitutional rights of religious minorities in Pakistan. It added that Pakistan did not need counsel by any country on how to protect the rights of its minorities.The demarche said “proponents of human rights worldwide close their eyes to the systematic persecution of minorities subjected to alien domination and foreign occupation such as in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir”. The US official assured that Islamabad’s viewpoint would be conveyed to Washington.Pakistan’s reaction came in response to the release of the congressionally-mandated annual religious freedom report issued by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Tuesday.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that he had designated Pakistan among “countries of particular concern”, meaning the US government was obliged to exert pressure to end freedom violations.However, on Wednesday the US clarified that Pakistan remained on the list but there would be no additional sanctions other than those already placed on Islamabad. A US embassy spokesman said that Pompeo had issued a waiver over potential sanctions against Pakistan as required by “the important national interest of the United States”.The Foreign Ministry statement said that Pakistan rejected the “unilateral and politically motivated” pronouncement. “Pakistan does not need counsel by any individual country [on] how to protect the rights of its minorities,” it said.“Sadly, the proponents of human rights worldwide close their eyes on systematic persecution of minorities subjected to alien domination and foreign occupation such as in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the statement pointed out.The statement said that Pakistan was a multi-religious and pluralistic society where people of diverse faiths and denominations lived together. It also warned that honesty would have required Washington to examine the “exponential rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the US”.The report ignored the systematic religious targeting of minorities in India, particularly the Muslims, and places it in Tier 2 and moved Pakistan up a notch to Tier 1. “Besides the clear biases reflected from these designations, there are serious questions on the credentials and impartiality of the self-proclaimed jury involved in this unwarranted exercise,” the statement said.“The government of Pakistan has devised well-established legal and administrative mechanisms to safeguard the rights of its citizens. Ensuring equal treatment of minorities and their enjoyment of human rights without any discrimination is the cardinal principle of the Constitution of Pakistan.”The statement mentions that special seats had been reserved for minorities in the parliament to ensure their adequate representation and voice in the legislation process. “A vibrant and independent National Commission on Human Rights is functioning to address concerns on violation of the rights of minorities.”It said that successive governments had made it a priority that rights of citizens belonging to minority faiths were protected as guaranteed by the law and the Constitution. The higher judiciary of the country had also made several landmark decisions to protect the properties and places of worships of minorities.Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari also said that Pakistan’s inclusion on the US list was “pure political blackmailing” and an attempt by the United States to pressure Pakistan to implement US policy goals in Afghanistan.