ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday, warned protesters not take the law into their own hands. “I appeal to these elements ... do not clash with the state.”
He said the apex court verdict that Christian woman Asia Bibi, who was in jail on blasphemy charges but won her appeal against the death sentence, was according to the constitution.
The prime minister added that a small segment of society is inciting the masses for their own political purposes.
“Let me make it clear to you ... the state will fulfil its duty and protect people’s lives and properties,” he said. “I appeal to you ... do not take the state to a level where it has no option but to initiate action.”
Khan said that the language being used against the Supreme Court judges who announced the verdict and against Army Chief General Qammar Javed Bajwa was unbearable.
“Saying that the judges of the Supreme Court are ‘Wajib ul Qatl’ (liable to be killed) and that the army chief is a ‘non-Muslim,’ and calling for a revolt against the chief justice and army chief ... This is unacceptable,” the PM said.
The central leader of the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party (TLP), Afzal Qadri, issued a decree against the judges who released Asia.
Supporters of Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a hard-line cleric and chief of the TLP, are demonstrating against the verdict, holding sit-in protests in Karachi, Lahore, Multan and leading protest rallies in Islamabad and other cities. Clashes between the protesters and police have been reported.
The area known as Red Zone in Islamabad, where the Supreme Court, Parliament and other important building are located, has been sealed off to keep protesters away from the court.
Bibi was the first woman in the country who had been given the death sentence for blasphemy.
The three-member bench headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Saqib Nisar reversed two lower-court verdicts against Bibi and said she would be set free if she is not wanted in relation to any other case.
Don’t clash with state, Pakistan’s PM Khan warns protesters
Don’t clash with state, Pakistan’s PM Khan warns protesters
- A small segment of society is inciting masses, PM Khan said
- TLP supporters are protesting against the apex court verdict to free Christian woman
Macron squares up to Trump in rebel shades at macho Davos gathering
- French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, wore sunglasses on stage
- A broken blood vessel has left him with a bloodshot eye since last week
PARIS: Top Gun or Terminator? French President Emmanuel Macron’s sporting of aviator shades at Davos this week tickled the press and inspired viral memes online, while prompting a surge in visitors to the eyewear brand’s website.
Macron, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, wore sunglasses on stage due to a broken blood vessel that has left him with a bloodshot eye since last week, according to the Elysee’s chief physician.
While the French president stood up for European sovereignty and blasted “unacceptable” threats by his US counterpart Donald Trump to impose tariffs on countries opposed to his plans to seize Greenland, it was Macron’s flashy blue sunglasses that grabbed much of the attention.
“Top Gun or Terminator?,” read a headline in Le Parisien daily, highlighting the viral commentary which ranged from memes photoshopping laser beams shooting from Macron’s eyes to his face on the “Miami Vice” film poster.
Other images on social media showed Macron playing the rebel Maverick from the Top Gun franchise, while facing off to Trump.
“These sunglasses were unintentionally a very fitting visual vocabulary for the message he wanted to convey,” said communications professor Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet at Paris’s Sciences Po university.
“It gave a Hollywood-style dimension — cool and masculine at once — that answered Trump.”
Trump mocked the look, stating: “I watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?“
“But I watched him sort of be tough,” Trump added, after Macron said France rejected “bullies.”
The UK’s Telegraph newspaper published the headline “Can Macron’s sunglasses save the West?” in an analysis of the heated and divisive tone taken by largely male world leaders at the summit.
“Testosterone is the primary currency in Davos this year, and the French president’s aviators have placed him at the top of the pecking order,” the Telegraph wrote.
The hype surrounding Macron’s look led to a surge in traffic to the French eyewear maker Henry Jullien’s website, causing it to crash.
“Our eShop website is experiencing an exceptional volume of visits and enquiries” following the “significant visibility” given to the sunglasses by Macron, said a notice on the brand’s website.
It added that it had launched a “temporary page” featuring solely the ‘Pacific’ model worn by Macron, “to ensure stable and secure access for everyone.”
