Pakistan condemns blasphemous Dutch cartoon contest

Pakistan's senate has unanimously passed a resolution condemning an anti-Islam cartoon contest planned by a far-right Dutch politician - one of the first actions taken by the assembly since last month's general election. 

Senators in the upper house of parliament formally protested on Monday the announcement by Dutch opposition MP Geert Wilders to hold a Prophet Muhammad caricature competition in the Netherlands later this year. 

In his first address to the senate in the capital, Islamabad, newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to take the issue to the United Nations General Assembly in September, calling it a "collective failure of the Muslim world". 

"Very few in the West understand the pain caused to Muslims by such blasphemous activities," said Khan.

"Our government will raise the matter in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and get the countries there to come up with a collective policy that could then be brought up at international forums. This should have been done a long time ago.

"I understand the Western mindset as I have spent a lot of time there. They do not understand the love Muslims feel for the Prophet."

Last week, Pakistan foreign office summoned the Dutch ambassador to lodge a protest against the blasphemous competition, expressing its "deep concern at this deliberate and malicious attempt to defame Islam".