Islamabad’s bid to expel French envoy fails

The Imran Khan-led PTI government last week had agreed to move a resolution in the National Assembly for the removal of the French Ambassador from the country…reports Asian Lite News

The Imran Khan government’s move to form a special parliamentary committee on the issue of the French envoy’s expulsion from Pakistan seems to have failed after opposition parties joined hands to oppose the idea and called for a debate in the country’s National Assembly instead.

“The PPP does not support the idea of formation of any special committee and believes that the debate on the issue must be held in the National Assembly after converting it into a committee of the whole house,” PPP secretary general Farhatullah Khan Babar told Dawn on Sunday.

Dismissing the need for any special committee, Babar said the party leaders had decided to support the stand taken by all opposition parties, including the PML-N and the JUI-F. He also said every member should be allowed to speak on the matter which was sensitive in nature.

Ban on Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan

As things stand, the opposition members in the country are demanding that the Imran Khan government should present the agreement it had signed with the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), before the Parliament. Furthermore, they want people responsible “for the bloodshed” in the country to be identified.

Last week, Dawn in one of its editorials, had said that the Pakistan government’s “bad decision-making and weak management” have allowed now proscribed TLP to garner more importance and heft than it deserves.

The Pakistani newspaper noted that the TLP affair should have been handled better and it is fairly obvious now that the Imran Khan-led government has run circles around itself while attempting to get a grip on the situation.

The Imran Khan-led PTI government last week had agreed to move a resolution in the National Assembly for the removal of the French Ambassador from the country.

“This becomes even more obvious when the resolution is contrasted with the speech that Prime Minister Imran Khan delivered on Monday in a bid to explain his strategy. The crux of his argument was reasonable. He said that no Muslim would ever compromise on the finality of Prophethood, but this did not mean that one party should be allowed to monopolise the issue,” the editorial read. (ANI)

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