ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: Pakistan on Monday sent out a pointed message to the United Nations and the European Union, particularly Denmark, to redress the damage caused by publication of blasphemous cartoons and demanded practical steps to prevent recurrence of such reprehensible acts.
Addressing a weekly news briefing here, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam declared Pakistan expected the EU and the UN to take specific measures after the publication of the offensive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), first in a Danish newspaper and then in other European publications.
“We want Denmark and other European governments to take action, practical steps that would stop from such events happening in future,” Ms Aslam emphasized.
“What we want from the European Union now is concrete steps. It’s not enough to say that in their society there is no tolerance for discrimination and they regret the hurt the cartoons caused. This needs to be backed up with laws,” she asserted.
“In this case we do expect the European Union to put in place some laws which would ensure that in future there are no such incidents,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said.
She was answering a question on whether Pakistan was satisfied with the response of the EU and the UN on the cartoon issue and if they had done enough to defuse the crisis.
“We are not against the freedom of expression but certainly freedom of expression as we have said repeatedly is not a license to insult other people,” she reiterated.
Stating while it was the right of every Muslim to protest given that the publication of offensive cartoons had hurt the sensibilities of Muslims immensely, Ms Aslam emphasized that the government expected the demonstrations and protests would stay peaceful. “When they turn into violent acts we also damage our image,” she cautioned.
Ms Aslam told a questioner that Pakistan along with other members of the OIC had taken up the issue with the EU, the entire membership of the UN and the international community at every possible forum.
In this context, she referred to a list of measures that the OIC meeting held on February 14 in Jeddah had outlined. She said the measures included: the EU should adopt necessary legislative measures by the European Parliament against Islamophobia and the EU and OIC may jointly make efforts to adopt UN Resolutions on the lines of existing UN Resolution 60/150, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly at its 60th session at Pakistan’s initiative.
Elaborating on it she said: “While the Resolution 60/150 talked about the need to combat Islamophobia, what we are looking at now is to put in place some binding resolution that would require States to take measures to stop defamation of religion.”
Ms Aslam said the OIC had also asked European countries to adopt a code of conduct for their media which should take into account the sensitivities of the Muslims and also curb defamation in any form or manifestation. This would include mocking and criticizing prophets, she said, underlining that the code of conduct should make it an ethical offence.
On expectations from the UN on this front, Ms Aslam stated: “We also want the United Nations to take a number of steps.” One, the UN should adopt an International Communication Order which should cover limits of freedom of speech in case of religious symbols, she said.
She maintained that on Pakistan’s initiative the OIC as a group was talking to the UN membership and also the president of the UN General Assembly to include two paragraphs in the preamble and operative part of the resolution presently being negotiated on the proposed Human Rights Council.
“In addition to that we would also explore the possibility if the United Nations can adopt prevention that would require states to curb defamation of religions,” she disclosed.
The spokesperson sounded confident of “some results,” given that the 57-nation pan-Islamic body was a large organization and the way it was proceeding on the issue.
DENMARK: Ms Aslam said while Islamabad had recalled its ambassador from Denmark, the Pakistan mission there was still operating.
Replying to a question, she said diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Denmark were in tact. “We have more than 25,000 Pakistanis (in Denmark), we just cannot abandon them,” she observed, adding that the Pakistan mission was providing consular services to the Pakistani community.
On the Danish mission in Pakistan, she said the embassy staff was here. However, she said the government had been informed that the Danish ambassador had gone back to Copenhagen temporarily. “We were also assured that they are not going to keep him there for a long time,” she said.
Asked if Pakistan planned to withdraw its ambassadors from other European countries that had reprinted the derogatory cartoons, she said: “No.”
CIVIL N-TECH: On India-France agreement on civilian nuclear technology cooperation, the spokesperson said Pakistan was not yet aware of all what it entailed. However, underlining that Pakistan and India had the same status as nuclear weapons’ states which are not signatories to the NPT, she said: “We do expect that any concession, any exception granted to India in the context of NSG or any other multilateral arrangement would be applicable to Pakistan as well.”
She said Pakistan had a civilian nuclear programme and its civilian nuclear facilities were under IAEA safeguards, adding: “We have very strong legislation on export controls.”
Underscoring that Pakistan too had its energy requirements she expressed hope if that such an exception were made it would also be extended to Pakistan. “We would be willing to accept IAEA safeguards for any civilian nuclear power plants,” she held out the assurance.
AFGHANISTAN: On the list of wanted Taliban leaders that President Karzai said he had handed over to Pakistan, Spokesperson Aslam categorically stated: “This list was not handed over during President Karzai’s meeting with the president and prime minister and we have not been able to ascertain if such a list was indeed handed over to any other agency.”
Ms Aslam said she had been informed by the Interior secretary that such a list had not been handed over to the Ministry of Interior. She said even other government departments had given a similar response to this query.
Asked whether it was correct to infer that no list was handed over to Pakistan, her response was: “So far we have not been able to confirm to whom this list was handed over to and whether there was such a list.”
When the spokesperson’s attention was drawn to President Karzai’s statement that Afghanistan did not recognise the Durrand Line, she maintained he had said in response to a question that it was not an issue between our two countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan) and that there is an international border.
On his statement that people should travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan without visa, Ms Aslam said: “That again is an expression of the kind of relationship that we have between our two countries.” She declined to go further into it, saying: “Let us not get into something that hasn’t been formally raised with the Government of Pakistan and on which, according to our information, he (Karzai) avoided public comment.”
PRISONERS: The spokesperson told the news briefing that at present in Afghanistan there were between 30 and 40 Pakistani prisoners who were reportedly involved in serious crimes. She said in Pakistan there were now 400 Afghan prisoners. Prior to President Karzai’s visit here last week Pakistan had released more than 500 Afghan prisoners.
CHINA: The Foreign Office spokesperson disagreed with a questioner that the killing of Chinese engineers in Hub showed the government had failed in its duty to provide them protection. “This is a terrorist act. Despite any government’s best efforts terrorist acts do happen,” she asserted. She said it was obvious that this terrorist act, carried out just ahead of the president’s visit, was aimed at creating problems between Pakistan and China.
However, she observed that the relations between the two countries were so strong and ongoing cooperation so close that they could overcome such problems.
The spokesperson said a Chinese team was already here and had met the secretary Interior during the day. She maintained the team was very satisfied with the steps the government of Pakistan had taken in this regard.
PALESTINE: Asked if Pakistan would recognise the Hamas government in Palestine, the Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We recognise any government that the people of Palestine elect. It’s their decision and any government that represents their aspirations is acceptable to Pakistan.”
She recalled that Pakistan had noted that elections in Palestine were peaceful, fair and violence-free and it had welcomed that.
On whether the Government of Pakistan would invite Hamas leaders, she said at the moment there was no proposal but did not rule out the possibility. In this context, Ms Aslam mentioned the proposed visit of a Pakistani delegation to Gaza. She said it would take place whenever the Palestinian Authority indicated the dates for the visit.
INDIA VIRUS ALERT: Asked whether Pakistan was concerned about the fact that the bird flu virus had been detected in India, Ms Aslam said: “Of course we are very concerned because such deadly viruses don’t recognise international borders.” She said some meetings were underway to see what steps could be taken in this regard.
She maintained while fortunately so far there had been no such reported case in Pakistan, the Ministry of Health was in the process of taking preventive measures and coordinating with various hospitals.
Asked whether Pakistan was contemplating sealing its borders with India in the wake of this deadly virus, she said at the moment there was no such proposal. Creating awareness about it was the first preventive measure, she stressed.
Pointing to discussions on this issue at the UN, she said the world body had underlined that it was the responsibility of all states to cooperate with each other in this regard.
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