ISLAMABAD, Feb 14: Members of both houses of parliament staged a protest march here on Tuesday to express resentment and anguish on publication of blasphemous cartoons by various European newspapers.

Parliamentarians belonging to most of the political parties joined the march. However, absence of the National Assembly Speaker, Senate Chairman, the prime minister and ministers, the leader of opposition and the MMA president was widely noticed.

Deputy Speaker Sardar Yaqub, chairman of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PPP leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, acting president of PML (Nawaz) Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, PML chief whip Nasrullah Dareshak, Rauf Mengal and a few members of the so-called forward bloc of the ruling PML, including Riaz Pirzada, Farooq Amjad Mir and Farooq Azam, were among the prominent parliamentarians in the march.

A large number of women and minority MPs took part in the march.

Earlier, a meeting of representatives of various parties was held to finalise a plan for the march.

Talking to newsmen, Makhdoom Amin Fahim said that had there been a representative government in place the protest would have been stronger.

He said: “Through the silent protest we have given a message to the European countries that we are peace-loving nation and do not believe in chaos and anarchy.”

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that unless the European countries concerned offered apologies and assured that such blasphemous material would never be published in their countries, the Muslim outrage would not end, rather it would escalate in days to come.

He said the nation would demonstrate its unity on March 3 when a complete strike would be observed.

Leading the collective prayer at the end of the demonstration, Hafiz Hussain Ahmed urged the countries concerned to ask the newspapers which had deliberately hurt the sentiments of the Muslims to offer apology.

He termed the publication of the cartoons a Zionist conspiracy aimed at creating misgivings and misunderstandings between the two largest religions of the world.

He said that the Western world had deliberately ignored the united voice of the Muslim Ummah against the misdeeds of some miscreants in the name of freedom of expression.