ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday warned religious and political parties to refrain from politicising the religious issue of publication of blasphemous cartoons.

Talking to chief ministers of the provinces, Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi of Punjab, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim of Sindh, Mohammad Akram Khan Durrani of the NWFP and Jam Mohammad Yousuf of Balochistan and NWFP Governor Khalilur Rahman at Prime Minister’s House, he said the government was taking all possible steps to permanently prevent publication of blasphemous material.

He discussed with the chief ministers the importance of maintaining of law and order and stressed the need for avoiding any clash during protests.

The prime minister talked about measures taken by the government on the issue, including sending a delegation of ulema to the United Kingdom, proposed dispatch of a parliamentary delegation to Brussels and taking up the issue at the United Nations.

Prime Minister Aziz said the issue had been taken up with the Organisation of Islamic Conference, the UN and the European Union to find a permanent solution.

He said that in addition to requesting the OIC to convene a meeting of its foreign ministers, the government was sending a delegation to meet European parliamentarians to prevent recurrence of incidents which hurt the feelings of Muslims.

He regretted the attempts being made by certain quarters to politicise the purely religious issue which concerned all Muslims.

He maintained that peace would be maintained at all costs.

The government recognised the right of people to protest against publication of sacrilegious material but no-one could be allowed to damage public or private property and cause loss of life, he said.

Mr Aziz urged the chief ministers to maintain law and order in their provinces and not to allow anyone to disrupt normal life and hamper the process of economic development in the country.