ISLAMABAD, March 1: Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said on Wednesday that during US President George Bush’s visit here this week Pakistan would solicit his diplomatic support for its initiatives on the issue of blasphemous cartoons.

Mr Kasuri was addressing a press conference after attending the National Security Council (NSC) meeting which, he said, focused on a single point agenda of Namoos-i-Risalat.

The NSC was chaired by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Asked if the president would take up the issue with President Bush, the foreign minister replied in the affirmative.

“President Musharraf will take this opportunity to tell him (Bush) what an outrage these cartoons have caused and how much danger they have caused to relations between the Muslims and the western world and the need for bridging through a dialogue the gap between civilisations.”

On whether President Musharraf would also seek President Bush’s support for an international legislation to prevent publication of blasphemous caricatures, Mr Kasuri pointed to diplomatic initiatives that Pakistan was planning to undertake and said: “We will solicit President Bush’s support in that.”

He said it would be ‘very useful’ to engage with President Bush as besides being the leader of the only superpower he was also in some ways the leader of the western world.

He pointed out that the US had already condemned the blasphemous caricatures and referred to a statement made by former US president Bill Clinton during his recent visit here. He said the statement had a ‘very positive impact’ all over the Muslim world.

He said that Pakistan had been in the forefront in initiatives taken on the issue in the United Nations and Organisation of Islamic Conference. He mentioned the role that Pakistan had played on the need for an inter-civilisation dialogue.

At the outset, the foreign minister emphasised: “Our hands will be strengthened if Pakistan is perceived to be acting in the defence of Islamic causes, as it always does, and not because of internal agitation and violence.”

He recapitulated date-wise all actions taken by the foreign office and Pakistan’s missions abroad following the publication of blasphemous sketches. He said this had also been appreciated by the secretary-general of the OIC during his visit to Pakistan last week.

Mr Kasuri disagreed with a questioner that the initiatives taken had not yielded any results. He was quick to draw attention to Resolution 60/150 adopted by the UN General Assembly at Pakistan’s initiative, calling upon the international community to combat defamation of all religions and curb the tendency of Islamophobia.

Underlining the importance of engaging with Europe on the issue, he said that was the reason Pakistan was sending a parliamentary delegation to Brussels to interact with the EU parliament.

“We are in this process where we are trying to explain to European Union...we have to behave diplomatically,” he said, adding that the underlying objective of all the efforts was to sensitise the international community so that such reprehensible acts were not repeated.

The foreign minister ascribed the publication of sacrilegious cartoons and insensitivity to the issue to secularism emanating from development of democracy and political evolution in Europe.

“They probably are not aware of the sort of respect that the Prophet (peace be upon him) is held in the Islamic world and the outrage it causes to Muslims all over the world,” was how he put it.

Mr Kasuri said that while Muslim fundamentalism was blamed for ‘lots of problems’ in the world, there were two sides of fundamentalism, the other being the secular fundamentalism.

In a jibe at the European countries where the cartoons were published, he said: “Since we live in a global village and we are also told to abide by the rules of global village — whether it is in the form of WTO or the Kyoto Treaty — then there are also requirements and one of the most basic requirements is that you must be sensitive to the feelings of such a large part of humanity…and Muslims constitute 25 per cent.”

NSC: The National Security Council (NSC) on Wednesday decided to take strict action against political parties and individuals who were ‘politicising’ issue of the blasphemous cartoons, Ihtasham ul Haque adds.

“The NSC meeting has resolved that severe action will be taken against those who are politicising the blasphemy issue,” said Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, adding that the government would maintain law and order at all costs.

Talking to Dawn, he said the meeting, chaired by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, had also decided to take ‘additional’ measures to deal with violence arising out of protests against the blasphemous caricatures.

Answering a question, he said that Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rehman did not attend the meeting. “I don’t know why he did not turn up.”

However, he pointed out, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani had participated in the meeting which was also attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other members of the council.

He said the NSC regretted that some political leaders were urging people to disrupt the civic life.

The president and the prime minister expressed despair that the vested interest had tried to politicise the issue.

“The meeting believes that there is no need to ban peaceful protests and rallies. But from now onwards, the government will be very, very tough,” Mr Sherpao warned.

He said the four chief ministers briefed the meeting on steps taken to maintain law and order in provinces.

Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq informed the NSC that he would be leading a parliamentary delegation to the EU headquarters in Brussels as part of Pakistan’s efforts on the issue.