Pakistan protests: How a 'change' in electoral law brought allegations of blasphemy and violence with it

Protesters belonging to hardline Islamist groups on Monday called off their protests after the Pakistan government agreed to its demands and law minister Zahid Hamid resigned. 

The protesters had clashed with the security forces on Saturday and Sunday, leading to death of seven people. Nearly 200 people injured in the deadly clashes after police tried to disperse protesters in Islamabad on Saturday.  The protesters resisted the bid and clashed with the security forces and blocked key roads and motorways in other cities.

What were the protests all about: 

Pakistan for years had an electoral law that required candidates to declare that the prophet Muhammad is God’s final prophet. The oath practically stops Ahmadi Muslims to participate in the elections. Recently, words in the electoral oath “I solemnly swear” were replaced with “I believe.” 

Many in Pakistan believed that the change amounted to blasphemy and alleged that the change would have allowed Ahmadiya community members to contest elections.  Although, the government termed the issue "clerical error" and swiftly changed the language back, hardline groups accused law minister Zahid Hamid of blasphemy against Islam and demanded his dismissal and arrest. The protests began three weeks ago in Faizabad, just outside Islamabad. The sit-in had paralysed the national capital and neighbouring Rawalpindi for three weeks.

Who are the protesting groups: 

The protests were led by a hard-line Islamist political party Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY). The group is led by cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi and has risen to prominence in recent months.  

The party was born out of a protest movement lionizing Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province, who gunned down his boss in 2011 over his call to reform strict blasphemy laws. Tehreek-i-Labaik was joined by activists of other hardline groups such as Tehreek-i-Khatm-i-Nabuwwat and Sunni Tehreek Pakistan (ST) in protests.

How protest peaked:

Pakistan police have been trying to clear out the protesters who had brought the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi to standstill. On Saturday, nearly over 1,000 protesters clashed with the police when they were asked to clear out the camps in Faizabad.

The protests soon spread to other parts of the country and Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi called in the Army.  Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa opposed use of force against its own people since the population's trust in the institution of the army "can't be compromised for little gains". He had called on the civilian government to end the protest while “avoiding violence from both sides”.

An agreement to end protests: 

The protesters called off their demonstrations today after Zahid Hamid resigned, meeting one of their key demands to lift the siege. The law minister last night sent his “voluntary” resignation to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who accepted it.

The government reached to an understanding with the Tehreek-i-Labaik to call off the protest as their key demand had been accepted and the changes made in the law had already been taken back when parliament restored the original oath. Following the agreement and the subsequent resignation of Hamid, Rizvi ordered his followers all over the country to end the sit-ins and go home.

Part of the deal is that the government would take back all cases against protesters and make public the probe regarding the changes in the oath and also punish those who were responsible for crackdown on protesters. The agreement also lauded efforts of army chief for playing key role in peacefully ending the stand-off, which became possible after an important meeting between Bajwa and Abassi.