This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Pakistan’s law minister has resigned after weeks of big protests staged by a hardline cleric against a perceived softening of the country’s blasphemy laws.



At least six protesters were killed and 200 injured in Islamabad on Saturday when thousands of police officers unsuccessfully tried to disperse a three-week sit-in that had virtually paralysed the capital.

Zahid Hamid’s resignation is the latest in a series of government concessions to religious extremists, who have been edging their way further into the political mainstream.



Q&A What’s behind the protests in Pakistan? Show Hide Rallies began on 8 November when firebrand cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi staged a sit-in in Islamabad over the government's alteration of the wording of an electoral oath, in which politicians swear that Muhammad is the last prophet. Rizvi and supporters of his party, Tehreek-e Labbaik Ya Rasoolullah, regarded the change as pandering towards religious minorities, particularly the Ahmadi sect, who believe in later prophets – considered heresy by law in Pakistan. The government claimed it had made a mistake and immediately reversed the change, but protesters insisted on the resignation of the law minister, Zahid Hamid. Up to 2,000 people blocked a key entrance to Islamabad and police set up barriers to prevent protesters from reaching government buildings. For three weeks, the Pakistani capital was on virtual lockdown, and protests spread to other cities, including Lahore and Karachi. The government asked the army to step in, but the military refused. Clashes between police and protesters led to at least six deaths and 200 injuries. On 27 November, the army brokered a deal between the government and the protesters in which the minister was made to step down. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP

Last week, a court in Lahore lifted the house arrest of Hafiz Saeed, a militant leader with a $10m (£7.5m) American bounty on his head for international terrorism, who heads a growing political movement and is fiercely opposed to India and western interference.

“The decision to resign was taken in a bid to steer the country out of the prevailing critical situation,” Hamid said, according to a report in Pakistan’s Tribune newspaper.

Observers said Monday’s deal could set a dangerous precedent. “Zealots have taken the law into their own hands. Mullahs can get up and ask for anyone’s resignation, so this is the death of rationality,” said Zahid Hussain, a political analyst. “This is complete surrender to hardline Islamists. It’s a sad day for Pakistan: it shows that the state is so weak, and that we can’t stand up to blackmailing.”

Hussain also rebuked the army, which brokered the deal and has been criticised for its alleged proximity to extremist groups, for refusing to step in against the protesters, despite a request from the government.

In the deal on Monday with Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who heads the Tehreek-e-Labbaik party, the government also agreed to release a report on an investigation into the alteration of an electoral oath declaring the prophet Muhammad as God’s final prophet. Protesters saw the change as appeasing a religious minority, the Ahmadis, who are officially deemed heretic.

The government will also free and drop charges against detained protesters. In return, Rizvi agreed not to issue a fatwa against the minister, seemingly to dissuade attacks on his person.

Blasphemy is already a capital offence in Pakistan, and serves as a rallying cry for Islamic extremist. Unfounded allegations regularly trigger mob attacks and lynching, which the government has been unable to prevent.

The recent protests expose the fragility of the governing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, which has been under increasing pressure since the disqualification of the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in July over corruption allegations.



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The government has met fierce criticism for its handling of the recent crisis and its failure to uphold the rule of law and safety for citizens.

“There is no reasonable set of circumstances in which a fledgling political party, no matter how aggrieved or agitated, could be allowed to not just hold the federal capital and the fourth most populous city of the country hostage, but also trigger protests across the country,” the Dawn newspaper wrote in an editorial.

A spokesman for Tehreek-e-Labbaik said the demonstrators did not feel victorious. “It’s a sad day because dozens of our protesters have been martyred,” said the spokesman, Ejaz Ashrafi. However, the Benazir Bhutto hospital in Rawalpindi could only confirm it had received six bodies.

A government minister, meanwhile, suggested the rallies had been planned by outsiders, without elaborating who might be behind them. “A great game is being played,” Mushahid Ullah Khan, minister for climate change who is part of the committee to investigate the electoral oath, told the Guardian.

“Someone has manipulated this entire situation. Eventually we will find out who was behind this big game and what it was all about.”