Pakistani right-wing party protests Dutch cartoon contest

An ultra-conservative party in Pakistan on Wednesday called for the expulsion of the Dutch ambassador in protest against a far-right and anti-Islam Dutch politician's plan for a cartoon competition featuring depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Most Muslims believe in a total prohibition of visual representation of the prophet, regardless of whether they are positive or negative in nature.  

Hundreds of activists gathered in the eastern city of Lahore for the demonstration organised by Tehreek-e-Labbaik, a party that amassed the fifth largest number of votes in a general election last month. Its campaign platform included respect for Islamic law and punishment for crimes of blasphemy.

The numbers were expected to swell if leaders of the party carry out a threat to take their protest to the capital Islamabad to pressure Pakistan's new prime minister, Imran Khan, to cut diplomatic ties with the Netherlands.

"The Dutch ambassador should be immediately deported," Labbaik spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi said.

"We will only stop when the government meets this demand."

Pakistan has already complained to the Dutch government about far-right parliamentarian Geert Wilders' plans for a cartoon contest that is designed to denigrate Islam.

Wilders intends to display the cartoons on the walls of his political party's room in parliament. He says he’s had "hundreds" of entries.

"The Foreign Office called the charge d'affaires of the Netherlands and issued him a Demarche' to record a protest," the Pakistani prime minister's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last week that the cartoon competition "was not something I would do" and his government was not associated with it.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he planned to take up the issue with the United Nations and several world leaders.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in July condemned the planned competition.

OIC Secretary-General Yousef bin Ahmed al Othaimeen called it a “provocative” move, which would sow seeds of hate among different religious groups.

“Freedom of speech does not mean hurting someone's feelings…” Othaimeen said.

Pakistan's new prime minister on Tuesday said, "They don't understand how much they hurt us when they do such acts," a day after the upper house of parliament condemned the proposed cartoon competition.

Officials from the Punjab provincial government met with Labbaik leaders in Lahore in a vain attempt to persuade them to call off their protest.

"We told them to stop the protests because the Pakistan government is taking up the issue effectively," an official involved in the talks said, adding that Labbaik representatives insisted the protest would only end once the Dutch envoy was expelled.

Last year, in a stand-off with the previous government, Labbaik shut down a main highway leading into Islamabad for nearly three weeks over a change in wording to an electoral law, changing a religious oath to a simple declaration. Labbaik said the change amounted to blasphemy.

The then governing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party (PMLN) was forced to accept the resignation of law minister Zahid Hamid, whom Labbaik held responsible for the change, after seven people were killed and nearly 200 wounded in a failed attempt by police to disperse protesters.