Pakistan complains to Netherlands over Wilders anti-Islam cartoon plans

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi complained to his Dutch counterpart on Tuesday over a planned anti-Islam cartoon contest, saying “such acts spread hate and intolerance”.

Far-right Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders has planned the contest for later in the year, and caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed are to be exhibited.

According to foreign office,  Qureshi said the planned event would hurt the feelings of Muslims around the world.

Qureshi said later he planned to take up the issue with several world leaders. “We have raised this issue at several levels,” he said. “We have contacted the United Nations. We have contacted the European Union.”

Pakistan’s upper house of parliament on Monday condemned the contest. Prime Minister Imran Khan said: “They don’t understand how much they hurt us when they do such acts.”

Wilders plans to display the cartoons on the walls of his political party’s room in parliament.

“This contest is not an initiative by the government,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last week.

“This contest is not something I would do.”