LAHORE: Members of a Pakistani Islamist group that made surprising gains in last month's national elections are preparing to march toward Islamabad to rally against Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who plans to hold a Prophet Muhammad cartoon competition in November.
Muslims across Pakistan have denounced the contest, calling it an attempt to defame Islam because physical depictions of God or the Prophet Muhammad, even positive ones, are forbidden in the religion.
Wednesday's rally will be the first test of how Pakistan's new prime minister, Imran Khan, interacts with the Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan party, which supported Khan in the July 25 vote.
Khan has sought international support against the cartoon competition and his government has lodged a protest with the Dutch ambassador but resisted demands to expel him.
Tehreek-i-Labaik in 2017 disrupted life in Islamabad by rallying against an omitted reference to the Prophet in a constitutional bill.
Pakistani Islamists rally against anti-Islam cartoon contest
Pakistani Islamists rally against anti-Islam cartoon contest
UN chief Guterres warns ‘powerful forces’ undermining global ties
- Guterres paid tribute to Britain for its decisive role in the creation of the United Nations
- He said 2025 had been a “profoundly challenging year for international cooperation and the values of the UN“
LONDON: UN chief Antonio Guterres Saturday deplored a host of “powerful forces lining up to undermine global cooperation” in a London speech marking the 80th anniversary of the first UN General Assembly.
Guterres, whose term as secretary-general ends on December 31 this year, delivered the warning at the Methodist Central Hall in London, where representatives from 51 countries met on January 10, 1946, for the General Assembly’s first session.
They met in London because the UN headquarters in New York had not yet been built.
Guterres paid tribute to Britain for its decisive role in the creation of the United Nations and for continuing to champion it.
But he said 2025 had been a “profoundly challenging year for international cooperation and the values of the UN.”
“We see powerful forces lining up to undermine global cooperation,” he said, adding: “Despite these rough seas, we sail ahead.”
Guterres cited a new treaty on marine biological diversity as an example of continued progress.
The treaty establishes the first legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of marine diversity in the two-thirds of oceans beyond national limits.
“These quiet victories of international cooperation — the wars prevented, the famine averted, the vital treaties secured — do not always make the headlines,” he said.
“Yet they are real. And they matter.”
