The Pakistani government will vote in parliament on Tuesday on whether or not to expel the French ambassador after violent anti-French protests by Islamists demanding action against cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed, the interior minister said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan warned his country in a televised address late on Monday that Pakistan risked paying a price if it ousted 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 tense after President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a French teacher who was beheaded by a man of Chechen descent late last year for showing cartoons depicting the prophet in a lesson on freedom of speech.
Muslims consider such drawings of their prophet blasphemous.
The ambassador’s deportation is one of the four main demands of a radical Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) group, which the government banned last week after its members blocked major highways, railways and access routes to major cities and police and the burning of public property.
Four police officers were killed, nearly a dozen were taken hostage and more than 800 injured, many of them seriously, in clashes with the Islamists.
Islamists say three TLP members have also been murdered.
Violence erupted after the government detained TLP leader Saad Hussain Rizvi in the run-up to a planned nationwide anti-France campaign to pressure Prime Minister Khan to take action.
On Monday, the government said it had started negotiations with the TLP and that the Islamist group had released 11 police officers who had been snatched in a clash outside the TLP’s headquarters in the eastern city of Lahore. read more
“After lengthy negotiations between the government of Pakistan and the TLP, it has been agreed that we will table a resolution in parliament today to expel the French ambassador,” said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad in a videotaped statement.
Aside from wanting to deport the ambassador, the TLP is demanding the release of their leader and hundreds of arrested workers, the lifting of the ban on the group and the dismissal of the interior minister.
All cases registered against the TLP and its employees will be dropped, the interior minister said, adding that the group will end all sit-in protests from around the country.
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