ISLAMABAD, 19 February 2006 — The secretary-general of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) will travel to Pakistan tomorrow to work out a common strategy against the publication of blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), a news report said yesterday.
Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoghu will meet Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to discuss the situation in the wake of worldwide outrage over the issue, the private news agency Online reported.
Pakistan’s envoy in Denmark, who has been recalled by the government for “consultations” will also attend the meeting with OIC chief.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Chief Don McKinnon, who is touring three South Asian countries, called for resolving the row over the cartoons through dialogue, saying respect must be built through understanding and goodwill.
“Violence is not the answer. That will only fuel the cycle of hatred,” the secretary-general of the 53-member body told an audience at the Aga Khan University in Karachi late Friday.
“Respect for others and their point of view cannot be imposed nor demanded at the end of a fist or a gun; it must be built through dialogue, understanding and goodwill,” he said.
He met President Pervez Musharraf and Aziz in Islamabad yesterday. Musharraf briefed him on the progress Pakistan made in last several years in field of democracy, good governance and economic reforms.
The cartoons first appeared in Danish newspapers in last September and were reprinted in the European media, triggering the worldwide uproar by Muslims.
The OIC chief’s visit to Pakistan follows remarks by Musharraf to an American television network on Friday that it was high time for the OIC and the European Union (EU) to seriously look at the issue to defuse growing tension over the publication of the cartoons.
A report by English daily Dawn said the OIC handed over a five- point agenda to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana during his recent visit to the group’s headquarters in Jeddah to address the situation and prevent recurrence of a similar crisis.
The agenda adopted at an extraordinary meeting of the permanent representatives of the member states in Jeddah urged the EU to adopt necessary legislative measures against “Islamophobia.” It also called on the EU states to work with OIC in adopting a UN resolution aimed at prohibiting defamation of prophets and faiths, the report said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan banned demonstrations in the capital Islamabad yesterday as protests over cartoons grew and four people were wounded when shots were fired during a rally in a central town.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the ban would apply to a protest planned today by Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the country’s main Islamist alliance.
“MMA leaders have been told that protests and rallies will not be allowed in Islamabad,” he told a news conference.
But a spokesman for the MMA said that they would defy the government ban by holding a rally today in Islamabad. “The rally will be held in Islamabad. It will be a peaceful rally,” Shahid Shamsi, an MMA spokesman said.
Four people were injured yesterday when security forces opened fire on protesters to stop them torching banks and other buildings in the eastern Pakistani city of Chiniot, police said.
The violence occurred at a rally of some 2,000 students and workers of political and religious parties protesting against publication of the cartoons, police officer Humayyun Sindhu said.
Sindhu said that police fired tear gas on protesters who attacked banks and other buildings and tried to set them on fire. Some of the protesters then fired at police, prompting police to open fire on them.
Four teenage protesters were injured in the shooting and taken to hospital, Sindhu said, adding that the situation in Chiniot, some 200 km northeast of Multan, was eventually brought under control.
Some 4,000 protesters took part in a rally in Karachi called by the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest religious party in Pakistan.
“We can die to uphold the sanctity of our Prophet,” they shouted.
In Lahore, police arrested around two dozen activists of a Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), to prevent them from protesting, officials said. Islamists have vowed to continue their protests until the government breaks off diplomatic ties with Denmark.
