Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Pakistan bans medicines imported from countries that libeled Prophet
PHOTO: Skopje, Macedonia
Muslims protest in a street in Macedonia's capital Skopje, on Friday, Feb. 10, 2006. Some 1,500 Muslims marched peacefully in downtown Skopje on Friday to protest the publication in a Danish paper of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Macedonia, as a predominantly Christian Orthodox country, has a large Muslim community. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
Muslims protest in a street in Macedonia's capital Skopje, on Friday, Feb. 10, 2006. Some 1,500 Muslims marched peacefully in downtown Skopje on Friday to protest the publication in a Danish paper of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Macedonia, as a predominantly Christian Orthodox country, has a large Muslim community. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)
Islamabad, Feb 10 (IRNA)--Pakistan will not import medicines from those countries where newspapers and magazines have published blasphemous cartoons, depicting Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the country's health minister said on Friday.
Import of medicines would not be allowed from those countries in which blasphemous caricatures have been published in the newspapers which have hurt sentiments of the Muslims, Muhammad Naseer Khan told the Senate, Upper House of the parliament.
He was replying to a question in the House when a Senator asked about the government's plan of importing medicines from European countries, where newspapers have published blasphemous cartoons.
He informed the House that eighty-five percent medicines are being produced in the country and only fifteen percent medicines which could not be produced in Pakistan are being imported.
He said that the country imported registered medicines worth three hundred and four million dollars during the last two years from forty-five countries.
Import of medicines would not be allowed from those countries in which blasphemous caricatures have been published in the newspapers which have hurt sentiments of the Muslims, Muhammad Naseer Khan told the Senate, Upper House of the parliament.
He was replying to a question in the House when a Senator asked about the government's plan of importing medicines from European countries, where newspapers have published blasphemous cartoons.
He informed the House that eighty-five percent medicines are being produced in the country and only fifteen percent medicines which could not be produced in Pakistan are being imported.
He said that the country imported registered medicines worth three hundred and four million dollars during the last two years from forty-five countries.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$330.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
As calls for calm over the publication of the insulting caricatures representing Prophet Mohamed published in several newspapers come from many quarters, many heads of states and official around the world condemned the publications, while protests continue in Asia and Africa.
5:05The uproar over the balsphemous publications of carricatures representing Prophet Mohamed in several newspapers worldwide, continues with more protests in Asia and Africa.
Hundreds of angry Muslim protesters staged a peaceful demonstration outside a Manila mosque after Friday prayers, with local Muslim leaders demanding an apology from Danish officials and called for Muslims to defend their faith.
In the Malaysia capital, thousands of protestors rallied outside the Danish embassy, and handed it over a petition, which said that the government endorsed the publication of the hate material under the guise of 'freedom.' They also demanded an apology, and called for a boycott of exports from Denmark.
Earlier, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged the Muslim world and the West to "accept one another as equals", blasting what he called the "demonisation of Islam" in the West, and warned of a "huge chasm" between the West and Islam.
Late Thursday, Malaysia announced it had slapped a blanket ban on circulating or even possessing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad after it shut down a local newspaper for reprinting the caricatures.
Indonesian police said they had charged the chief editor of a weekly tabloid with blasphemy for reprinting the satirical cartoons. The chief editor could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted of the criminal offense.
Protests also continued in Indonesia with more than 1,000 Muslims rallying in the town of Cirebon, urging the government to sever diplomatic ties with Denmark, while about 300 protestors picketed the Danish consulate in Medan city in North Sumatra.
Hundreds also burned placards and Danish flags outside the Danish embassy in Jakarta, demanding that the Danish government punish the newspaper for printing the cartoons. And Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, called on the media to draw a lesson from the publications, saying freedom of the press was not absolute.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia condemned the publications as "extremely arrogant, irresponsible, spiteful and communal" but warned Muslims against allowing their anger to turn violent.
Zia also called for an apology for the cartoons, saying: "Such types of provocation at this moment are very undesirable and sad. We hope the appropriate authority will tender an apology immediately."
Zia also said that limits of freedom and accountability have been violated by the publications. Her comments followed rallies attended by thousands of people, at which Danish flags were burned.
For his part, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that European newspapers should not have published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed but the riotous response to their publication was also wrong.
In the Azeri capital Baku, over 1,500 protestors peacefully marched towards the French embassy, while Muslims on Tanzania's Zanzibar archipelago demanded in a letter to Denmark's embassy the immediate resignation of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and also urged a boycott of Danish goods.
In South Africa, 100,000 people protested and called for a boycott of Danish products, and an immediate and unwavering apology from the Danish prime minister and the Danish government to the global Muslim community, as well as immediate "reproach" of the editor of the Danish 'Jyllands-Posten' newspaper.
The Greek president of the Socialist International of left-wing parties, George Papandreou, also called for "responsible" free speech, saying it entails great responsibility. We need a form of speech that enlightens, not one that kindles fires."
Former Polish president and ex-Solidarity trade union leader Lech Walesa condemned the publications, adding that freedom of speech cannot be an excuse for such actions.
The British branch of the Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, called for Muslim nations to sever diplomatic and economic ties with countries whose media have published the cartoons.
Meanwhile, calls for calm came from many quarters, with the Palestinian resistance group Hamas saying it "is prepared to play a role in calming the situation between the Islamic world and Western countries on condition that these countries commit themselves to putting an end to attacks against the feelings of Muslims."
A senior figure at Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, said it was time to move on from high emotion to constructive dialogue.
In Brussels, European Union justice commissioner Franco Frattini called for an urgent "re-launch of dialogue" with the Islamic world in response to the wave of protests, while the EU called for a voluntary media code of conduct to avoid further inflaming religious sensibilities.
Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero also called for cool. Putin rejected "the provocations leading to the incitement to hatred between nations or religions," while Zapatero said he defended freedom of expression in principle but at the same time supported "the greatest respect for ideas, ideologies, religions and persons."
In France
Muslims in France marked Ashura day in France to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein peace be upon him. Muslims seized this event to protest against the insulting cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad, which some European newspapers insist on publishing, thus harming the feelings of more than one billion four hundred million Muslims in the world. Ashura was also marked in different countries including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Syria, Kuwait, India Azarbeijan and other places.
http://www.almanar.com.lb/story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=644735
50 sec. AP
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=16012&rn=49750&cl=275519'&ch=68276&src=