ISLAMABAD: The treasury and opposition in National Assembly created rumpus in the house to take get credit for bringing a resolution against publication of blasphemous caricatures in France, but later managed to pass a joint resolution, condemning the sacrilegious cartoons and demanding to recall Pakistan's envoy from Paris as mark of protest.
The ruckus initially started due to the opposition and government wanting to present their own versions of the resolution but after lawmakers from both sides exchanges barbs over other political issues, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri suspended the session for 10 minutes to allow the government and opposition to devise consensus on the resolution.
The move paid off with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi returning to announce that the government and opposition members agreed on a unanimous resolution by clubbing the two resolutions together.
The resolution which was moved by Qureshi stated that the National Assembly while 'taking serious note of the republication of blasphemous caricatures depicting the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the desecration of the Holy Quran in Norway and Sweden condemns in strongest terms the resurgence of blasphemous and Islamophobic acts by mischievous elements in some parts of the world".
The lower house also expressed serious concern at the "highly concerning statements and hate-mongering especially by leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron justifying unlawful propagation and insult to sentiments of more than a billion Muslims through such hate-driven acts under the garb of freedom of expression".
"The NA condemns unequivocally the practice of blasphemy and of insulting prophets of Islam, Christianity and Judaism alike," according to the resolution, which also denounced acts of terror carried out in the name of any religion," it added.
It deplored the "equating of Islam and Muslims with terrorism" and in order to effectively address the issue, urged the government to: I) recall its envoy from Paris 2) the government should work within the OIC for designating I5th March as an International Day to Combat Islamophobia and to ask all OIC members to boycott French goods 3) Calls on OIC Secretary General to continue to monitor the phenomenon of Islamophobia and take necessary actions for presenting Islamic countries' common position on the issue especially the issue of blasphemous caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and desecration of the Holy Quran 4) called upon all non-OIC countries to review anti-Muslim discriminatory policies and to refrain from practices that fan intolerance, discrimination, hatred or associate Islam with terror or extremism and ban unlawful provocations 5) called upon all non-OIC countries to provide legal avenues to Muslims residing in their territory for redressal of their genuine grievances 6) called on the UN Secretary General and the UN High Commission for Human Rights to immediately initiate a global dialogue for inter-faith harmony and the countering of rising Islamophobia.
Earlier, the house witnessed a ruckus as PML-N's Khawaja Asif lambasted the government for employing alleged undemocratic practices and presented a resolution to condemn the blasphemous caricatures.
Qureshi read out another resolution that the government wanted to be passed with consensus on the issue of blasphemy.
With opposition members chanting 'voting, voting' for the resolution presented by Asif, an enraged Qureshi accused the opposition of doing politics on the sensitive matter.
He said the entire world was anguished over the publication of the blasphemous caricatures and he was disappointed to see the opposition's non-serious attitude on the grave issue.
The minister said that the opposition wanted to do politics even on such a sacred matter, adding the publication of the sketches had hurt the sentiments of the entire Muslim world and was reflective of the "rising trend of Islamophobia".
He added that he had presented a resolution condemning the act on the government's behalf and wanted it to be passed with consensus but the opposition instead resorted to political statements.
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal demanded the foreign minister to tender apology for dubbing all opposition members as the 'agent of India', adding "you [Qureshi] have sold out Kashmir, and you must give respond to us for this".
PPP's Raja Pervez Ashraf accused the government of doing politics on a sensitive issue involving religion.
Speaking on a point of order, Mohammad Aslam Bhootani, an MNA from Gwadar-Lasbela, expressed reservations over acquiring of land by National Logistic Cell (NLC) for setting up a transport and trade terminal at the Gwadar-Iran border.
He said that the NLC project would deprive local transporters and traders of their livelihood as they would be displaced from the area, and the NLC must be stopped.
The independent MNA, who supports the PTI government in the NA, said the NLC project would create a sense of deprivation among local people who are already not getting any benefit from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
He continued that CPEC would bring prosperity in the area, but it proved completely different as "our women are being insulted under the pretext of security".
Referring tweets of CPEC chairman Lt-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa (retd), he said that "prosperity in Gwadar will not come through tweets as it needed some practical work on the ground. It's been over fifteen years since the development of the port has started but to date there is no proper electricity in the area".
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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