The Pakistani government will call for a vote in parliament on Tuesday on whether to oust the French ambassador after violent anti-Franco protests by Islamists demanding actions on cartoons representing the Prophet Mohammad, the interior minister said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan warned his nation in a televised speech on Monday afternoon that Pakistan would risk paying a price if it expelled the French envoy, as half of the country’s exports are sold to the European Union . Read more
Relations between Paris and Islamabad became more strained after President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute late last year to a French teacher who was beheaded by a man of Chechen descent to show cartoons depicting the prophet in a class on free speech.
Muslims consider these drawings of their prophet to be blasphemous.
The expulsion of the ambassador is one of the four main demands of a radical group Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which the government banned last week after its members blocked major highways, railways and access routes to major cities, assaulting police and burning public property.
Four police officers were killed, nearly a dozen were taken hostage and more than 800 injured, many of them seriously, during clashes with Islamists.
Islamists say three members of the TLP also died.
Violence erupted after the government arrested TLP leader Saad Hussain Rizvi ahead of a planned nationwide anti-France campaign aimed at pressuring Prime Minister Khan to act.
On Monday, the government said it had entered into negotiations with the TLP and that the Islamist group had released 11 policemen who had been abducted during a clash in front of the TLP headquarters in the eastern city of Lahore. Read more
“After lengthy negotiations between the Pakistani government and the TLP, it has been agreed that we will present a resolution to parliament today to expel the French ambassador,” Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said in a statement in video.
In addition to wanting to expel the ambassador, the TLP demands the release of its leader and hundreds of arrested workers, the lifting of the group ban and the dismissal of the interior minister.
All cases filed against the TLP and its workers will be withdrawn, the interior minister said, adding that the group will end all protection protests across the country.
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