The Foreign Office on Thursday summoned ambassadors of the European Union, Belgium, and the Netherlands to lodge a protest against the European Parliament's (EU) refusal to meet Maulana Samiul Haq, who was part of Pakistan's parliamentary delegation. Maulana Samiul Haq was detained at the Brussels airport for an hour and a half and was later allowed to stay in his hotel on the condition that he would not address any gathering in Belgium, nor give any statements to the media.
Athar Mahmood, additional secretary (Europe), told the ambassadors that the government of Pakistan had taken exception to the treatment meted out to Maulana by the European Parliament. He emphasised that the Government of Pakistan had lamented the European Parliament's discriminatory behaviour towards Samiul Haq, who as an elected senator, leader of a major political party and a member of the Senate's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, saying he merited due respect, especially when he was representing Pakistan in Brussels. |