ISLAMABAD: Pakistani ministers said on Wednesday that a final decision over the future of France’s ambassador will be made by the government, despite an ongoing parliamentary debate on whether the country should heed the demands of a protesting religious party that the envoy be expelled.
Violent protests by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party and its supporters rocked the country when TLP chief Saad Rizvi was arrested in Lahore last week for threatening the government with rallies if it did not expel the French envoy to Islamabad over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) published in France last year.
The government said it would ban the party last week after its members blocked main highways, railways and access routes to major cities, assaulting police and burning public property. On Tuesday, the TLP ended its nationwide protests after the government called a parliamentary vote on whether to expel the French ambassador.
“Parliament can only request the government ask the French ambassador to leave. It does not make foreign policy nor does it govern diplomatic relations,” Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said in a press conference in Islamabad.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government’s position would be the same as Prime Minister Imran Khan’s who told the nation in a televised address on Monday that breaking ties with France would hurt Pakistan and hit its exports to the European Union, leading to poverty, unemployment and inflation.
“Government’s position is what the prime minister Imran Khan has expressed,” Chaudhry said in response to question by Arab News.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the government has the power to “decide the international relations and no man, no group can ask the state to do anything.”
He added that the TLP can lodge an appeal against the ban within 30 days and a government committee would decide the matter.
Minister Chaudhry, however, said the government itself would not lift the ban. “TLP is a banned organization today but if they want to buy an appeal and seek a legal remedy, they can but government can’t allow them to be unbanned,” he said.
Legal experts have said the government was bound to file a reference with the Supreme Court within 15 days of its declaration to ban the party. That decision needs to be upheld by the top court for the party to be dissolved.
Despite Tuesday’s assurance that the government would halt criminal cases against TLP members, the interior minister said those involved in the violent protests would have to face terrorism and murder charges.
“A total of 210 FIRs (criminal cases) will go through the legal process and this includes Saad Rizvi’s case as well,” Ahmed said, adding that the TLP chief was booked under terrorism and murder charges. “Anyone who breaks the law will be dealt with as per the law.”
He added that 669 TLP supporters have been released but their leader will remain behind bars with charges pending against him.
Five police officers were killed, 11 taken hostage and more than 800 wounded, many seriously, during last week’s clashes. The TLP says three of its members were killed.
