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Pakistan rejects U.S. report on religious freedom

News Network
December 25, 2019

Islamabad, Dec 25: Pakistan on Tuesday denounced the U.S. for placing it on a list of countries violating religious freedoms, calling the move “unilateral and arbitrary“.

The U.S. has re-designated Pakistan and China among seven other countries that are of particular concern for violation of religious freedom, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

Pakistan and China along with Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan were placed in the list for having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

The Foreign Office condemned the move, saying it was not only detached from ground realities of Pakistan but also raised questions about the credibility and transparency of the entire exercise.

The designation is reflective of selective targeting of countries, and thus unlikely to be helpful to the professed cause of advancing religious freedom, it said.

The Foreign Office said Pakistan is a multi-religious and pluralistic country where people of all faiths enjoy religious freedom under constitutional protections and concerted efforts were made to ensure that all citizens of Pakistan profess and practice their religion in full freedom.

It said Pakistan was also engaged with the international community, including the US for better understanding on religious freedom issues and regretted that constructive engagement were overlooked.

Pakistan also said that challenges to religious freedom were a global concern and only cooperative efforts could help address them.

The Foreign Office said Pakistan also raised concerns over growing trend of Islamophobia in many Western countries including the U.S.. Working together in an environment of trust and understanding is the best way forward in realizing the objective of promoting and protecting religious freedom, it said.

Comments

Dear Brother,

DOnt blame india for hypocracy of BJPians and some RSS..

Till now all relegion enjoyed freedom in india and will enjoy in future as well insha allha.

Be mature while commenting..please.

Fairman
 - 
Wednesday, 25 Dec 2019

India should be on the top of the list.

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News Network
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder will be hanged on March 3 at 6 am a Delhi court said on Monday.

The Patiala House Court on Monday issued fresh death warrants against four convicts while hearing a petition by the state and Nirbhaya's parents.

Earlier, Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had earlier issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

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News Network
July 9,2020

New Delhi, Jul 9: The Central Board of Secondary Education has strongly defended its decision to drop topics like democratic rights, citizenship, federalism, secularism etc in the name of reducing the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

The board has claimed that the dropped lessons "are either being covered by the rationalised syllabus or in the Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT".

The CBSE said it had to come up with the clarification after realizing its decision was "interpreted differently".

"The rationalisation of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken by the Board for nearly 190 subjects of class 9 to 12 for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only. The objective is to reduce the exam stress of students due to the prevailing health emergency situation and prevent learning gaps," it said.

While it has said that no questions can be asked from the reduced syllabus in the next board exams, the CBSE has also directed schools to follow alternative calendars prepared by the NCERT.

"Therefore each of the topics that have been wrongly mentioned in media as deleted have been covered under Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT which is already in force for all the affiliated schools of the Board," it clarified.

On Wednesday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Shocked to know that the central Government has dropped topics like citizenship, federalism, secularism and partisan in the name of reducing CBSE course during the COVID crisis."

"We strongly object to this and appeal the HRD Ministry to ensure these vital lessons aren't curtailed at any cost," Banerjee added.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Washington, Aug 7: US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) signed executive orders halting all transactions with Chinese applications TikTok and WeChat within 45 days, citing national security concerns, further escalating the tensions between Beijing and Washington.

"WeChat, a messaging, social media, and electronic payment application owned by the Chinese company Tencent Holdings Ltd., reportedly has over one billion users worldwide, including users in the United States. Like TikTok, WeChat automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users. 

This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) access to Americans' personal and proprietary information," Trump said in a statement.

Citing reasons for the ban on WeChat, the US President said that the application captures the personal and proprietary information of Chinese nationals visiting the US, thereby providing the CCP a mechanism to keep tabs on the Chinese citizens who may be "enjoying the benefits of a free society for the first time in their lives".

"In March 2019, a researcher reportedly discovered a Chinese database containing billions of WeChat messages sent from users in not only China but also the United States, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia. WeChat, like TikTok, also reportedly censors content that the CCP deems politically sensitive and may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the CCP. 

These risks have led other countries, including Australia and India, to begin restricting or banning the use of WeChat. The US must take aggressive action against the owner of WeChat to protect our national security," he added.

Earlier, Trump had issued an order banning TikTok as it "reportedly censors content that the CCP deems politically sensitive, such as content concerning protests in Hong Kong and China's treatment of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. 

TikTok may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the CCP."
US politicians have repeatedly criticised TikTok, owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance, of being a threat to national security because of its ties to China.

The development comes as China and the US are at loggerheads on a variety of issues including Hong Kong national security law, the South China Sea, the novel coronavirus and trade.

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