–PM Khan forms four-member committee to hold talks with TLP leaders and persuade them not to stage protest in federal capital
–TLP leaders say won’t stop protest until Dutch ambassador is expelled from Pakistan
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan has formed a four-member committee to negotiate with the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) after its activists started marching towards the federal capital from Lahore in a bid to pressurise the government to expel the Dutch ambassador over a blasphemous caricatures contest being organised in Netherlands by an Islamophobe Dutch MP, Geert Wilders.
Following the TLP rally’s departure for Islamabad, PM Khan formed a four-member committee comprising Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri, Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat to hold negotiations with the TLP leaders on Thursday.
“The committee will brief the TLP leaders on measures against blasphemous caricatures,” Noorul Haq Qadri told reporters after holding the first round of talks with TLP representatives Afzal Qadri, Allama Waheed Noor and Dr Amini in Lahore.
He said the government is trying to devise a joint strategy so that this issue can be dealt with effectively. “We desire a peaceful resolution of this matter by the way of negotiations,” he added.
During the talks, the TLP delegation said that their march to Islamabad in protest against Dutch Freedom Party leader Wilders’ announcement to hold a competition of blasphemous caricatures will go ahead as planned unless the Dutch ambassador to Pakistan is expelled from the country.
The blasphemous cartoon contest, scheduled for November, is being organised in the Netherlands by Wilders — a right-wing anti-Islam lawmaker who has been widely criticised for his activities.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has already distanced his government from the controversial contest, clarifying that: “Wilders is not a member of the [Dutch] government. The competition is not a government initiative.”
In a tweet on Wednesday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said that Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke with his Dutch counterpart to discuss the issue of “blasphemous caricatures”.
“The FM expressed concern on the announcement of [the] abominable and sacrilegious competition by Geert Wilders,” read the tweet, adding that the Dutch FM made it clear that his government was neither associated nor supporting the event
The religiopolitical party, meanwhile, announced that they would proceed with their march on the federal capital, saying that its workers would “stay on the streets until either the publication of blasphemous cartoons in the Netherlands is stopped or the government immediately ends diplomatic ties with the Dutch”.
TLP protesters on Wednesday started gathering at Data Darbar in Lahore, from where they started marching towards Islamabad via GT Road.
Earlier, the religiopolitical party had urged the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to not only “discontinue diplomatic and commercial relations with the Netherlands” but also “demand from other Islamic countries to do the same”.
The TLP had also demanded that since the competition’s judge is an American national, “therefore, strict measures should also be taken against the US”.
The TLP had attained notoriety after it effectively disrupted daily life in Islamabad for 20 days in November 2017.