LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) – A lawmaker from the Pakistan ruling party on Tuesday launched a debate on whether to expel the French ambassador over the publication in France of controversial cartoons depicting Islam’s prophet Mohammed.
The resolution of Amjad Ali, a legislator of Tehreek-e-Insaf, was seen as a test of whether the government conceded to threats from radical Islamists. This comes hours after the country’s interior minister successfully announced in his talks with a banned Islamic group Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan.
It also came after ten people, including four police officers, were killed in protests that erupted on April 12 after the arrest of Saad Rizvi, the leader of the Tehreek-e-Labaik. Rizvi threatened the government with mass protests if the French envoy was not suspended.
Earlier Tuesday, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said criminal cases against Islamists involved in the deadly protests against France would be withdrawn under the parliamentary resolution. However, there was no mention of the release of Rizvi or his supporters in the resolution.
Asad Qaiser, speaker of the National Assembly, adjourned the sitting amid heated debates until Friday and asked the government to voice objections from the opposition over the wording of the resolution.
The tension arose last year when France’s president, as freedom of speech, defended the publication of caricatures of Islam’s prophet Mohammed through a satirical newspaper and attracted condemnation from around the Muslim world.
Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan members are also protesting the arrest of Rizvi, a cleric who emerged as the group’s leader in November following the sudden death of his father, Khadim Hussein Rizvi.
Rizvi and his party want the French ambassador to be suspended in February under an agreement between the government and Rizvi’s party.
The government said it had only pledged to discuss the issue in parliament before April 20, when Ahmad said a resolution would be moved in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
Rizvi’s supporters took to the streets across the country last week when police arrested him. The reaction of Rizvi’s supporters against his arrest was so rapid that violence spread rapidly across the country. Four police officers and at least six protesters were killed in the violence.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad.