#Pakistan #France #Islamabad #Boycott
Has the Pakistani government given in to the demands of fundamentalist Muslims and will now boycott French products and expel the French ambassador?
Has the Pakistani government given in to the demands of fundamentalist Muslims and will now boycott French products and expel the French ambassador?
Leaders of the Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) claimed this success on Tuesday in the dispute over the "Mohammed cartoons" as well as statements by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The government in Islamabad has signed a pledge officially in favor of a boycott of French products, a TLP spokesman said on Tuesday. An official confirmation from the government was still pending on Tuesday afternoon.
However, a spokesman for the TLP presented a copy of a handwritten agreement signed by several ministers. And the party's founder and leader, the radical preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, announced that in return for the assurance that the TLP would end its road blockade,
with which it had put pressure on the government since Sunday, around 400 activists took part in the blockade injured about 40 police officers. The TLP made four demands: In addition to the boycott of French products and the expulsion of the ambassador,
these were that the Pakistani government should not appoint a new ambassador in Paris and that all arrested TLP activists be released. According to the TLP, all of the party's demands were met.
Parliament should therefore decide on the expulsion of the French ambassador within three months. However, it is unlikely that the French ambassador will actually have to leave Pakistan.
The government in Islamabad had criticized the repeated reprint of the controversial caricatures in France, Prime Minister Khan urged more understanding in the West for the veneration that Muhammad enjoyed in Islam.
At the same time, however, Khan is concerned about the international image of his government, which a diplomatic crisis with France would have a negative effect. It is more likely that the government will try to calm the situation down and then find a face-saving solution.
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