LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) – A lawmaker from Pakistan’s ruling party began a debate Tuesday over whether the French ambassador should be expelled for the publication in France of controversial cartoons featuring Islam’s prophet Mohammed.
The resolution of Amjad Ali, a lawmaker from Tehreek-e-Insaf, was seen as a test of whether the government is giving in to threats from radical Islamists. It came hours after the Home Secretary announced success in his talks with a banned Islamic group Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan.
It also came after 10 people, including four police officers, were killed in protests that broke out on April 12 following the arrest of Saad Rizvi, the leader of the Tehreek-e-Labaik. Rizvi had threatened the government with mass protests if the French envoy was not expelled.
Earlier on Tuesday, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said that under the parliamentary resolution, criminal cases against Islamists involved in the deadly protests against France would be dropped. However, the resolution did not mention the release of Rizvi or his supporters.
Asad Qaiser, chairman of the National Assembly, adjourned the session amid heated debate until Friday, asking the government to allay opposition concerns over the wording of the resolution.
Tensions arose last year when the French president defended the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad of Islam by a satirical newspaper as a matter of freedom of speech, with condemnation from across the Muslim world.
Pakistani members of Tehreek-e-Labaik are also protesting the arrest of Rizvi, a cleric who emerged as the group’s leader in November after the sudden death of his father, Khadim Hussein Rizvi.
Rizvi and his party want to oust the French ambassador under an agreement between the government and Rizvi’s party in February.
The government has said it would not have spoken out on the issue in parliament until April 20, when Ahmad said a resolution would be tabled 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 response of Rizvi’s supporters to his arrest was so rapid that violence quickly spread across the country. Four police officers and at least six protesters were killed in the violence.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad.