ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday has extended his felicitations to Emmanuel Macron on his re-election as President of the French Republic.

The Premier said in a Tweet, “Felicitations to President @EmmanuelMacron on re-election as President of the French Republic.”

“I look forward to working together in building a stronger multifaceted Pakistan-France relationship,” PM Shehbaz added.

Felicitations to President @EmmanuelMacron on re-election as President of the French Republic. I look forward to working together in building a stronger multifaceted Pakistan-France relationship.

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— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) April 25, 2022

Note that earlier in 2020, anger had sparked in the Islamic world after Emmanuel Macron’s public backing of the Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) cartoons.

Macron was being criticized with protests breaking out across the world after he accused Muslims of separatism and vowed not to give up on blasphemous caricatures.

Read more: European Fascism Reaches New Level, Macron Needs Mental Treatment: Erdogan

His comments came in response to the beheading of a teacher, Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old teacher, who was attacked on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

The teacher had shown cartoons disrespecting the Holy Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H).

Then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan had also condemned Macron, saying that the French president “attacked Islam” by encouraging the display of blasphemous caricatures.

He said Macron could have shown a “healing touch” to deny space to extremists but had instead “chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence, be it Muslims, White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists”.