The radical Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan called off countrywide protests and its followers dispersed in most cities on Monday after the government gave in to its demand that law minister Zahid Hamid should resign over a blasphemy row.<\/p>\n
Blockades by the anti-blasphemy group\u2019s supporters in Karachi and Lahore were lifted and life slowly returned to normal. But protestors remained in Islamabad, saying they would disperse after the government freed their arrested colleagues.<\/p>\n
Tehreek-e-Labbaik chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi, whose protest had paralysed Islamabad for almost three weeks, thanked the army chief for helping end the stand-off, raising questions about the military\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s climbdown will be an embarrassment for the ruling PML-N party ahead of elections expected in mid-2018, and it also highlighted the power of religious groups.<\/p>\n
Seven people were killed and nearly 200 wounded during an unsuccessful police operation over the weekend to disperse the protesters in Islamabad. The clashes in the capital triggered violent protests in other cities.
\nFile photo of Pakistan law minister Zahid Hamid at a news conference in Islamabad.<\/p>\n
Law minister Hamid sent his resignation to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi \u201cto take the country out of a crisis-like situation\u201d, state-run PTV reported. Hamid said, \u201cThe decision to resign was taken in a bid to steer the country out of the prevailing critical situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karachi was blocked at 10 places while roads in Lahore were blocked at16 points by the group, which staged a prolonged protest in Islamabad\u2019s Faizabad area, demanding the ouster of Hamid over a hastily abandoned legislation that it considered blasphemous.<\/p>\n
The Tehreek-e-Labbaik and the government signed an agreement following negotiations apparently brokered by the army. The agreement was signed by interior minister Ahsan Iqbal, Rizvi and an ISI official, Maj Gen Faiz Hamid.<\/p>\n
According to the agreement, the government also agreed to free dozens of protesters who were arrested over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The government had called on the army to tackle the protests after the failed police operation, but the troops remained in the barracks. The military said army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa had advised the premier to resolve the protests peacefully during a meeting on Sunday. Media reports quoted military sources as saying that Bajwa was opposed to the use of force as he believed it would affect the people\u2019s trust in the army.<\/p>\n
Rizvi highlighted the army\u2019s role in ending the standoff. \u201cThe honourable chief of army staff, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, sent his special envoys to us. We said we do not want to talk to the government; they are our murderers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the general took personal interest and sent his team, saying \u2018We will become the guarantors, and have your demands fulfilled.\u2019 So we said, \u2018All right. That is what we want.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the Islamabad high court criticised the army\u2019s role in the entire affair, questioning how it had acted as a \u201cmediator\u201d. An order issued by the court raised several objections to the agreement with the protesters and the role played by the army chief, which was \u201cbesides the Constitution and the law of the land\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Tehreek-e-Labaik launched its protest after blaming the law minister for changing the wording of an electoral oath. It claimed the words \u201cI believe\u201d, used to replace the clause \u201cI solemnly swear\u201d in a proclamation of Mohammed as Islam\u2019s last prophet, amounted to blasphemy.<\/p>\n
The government blamed the change on a clerical error and swiftly restored the original wording.<\/p>\n
The military high command also intervened to have news channels reopened after they were shut down over the weekend. A block on social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook was also lifted.<\/p>\n
The law minister\u2019s resignation is the latest in a series of blows to the PML-N. In July, party chief Nawaz Sharif was ousted as prime minister by the apex court over graft allegations while finance minister Ishaq Dar \u2013 also accused of corruption \u2013 has taken indefinite medical leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The radical Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan called off countrywide protests and its followers dispersed in most cities on Monday after the government gave in to its demand that law minister Zahid Hamid should resign over a blasphemy row. Blockades by the anti-blasphemy group\u2019s supporters in Karachi and Lahore were lifted and life slowly returned to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11444,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11442\/revisions\/11444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}