Pakistan’s law minister has been forced to resign after weeks of protests by people angry at changes to the country’s oath of office.
Two people died during violent clashes over the weekend after weeks of protests about new wording which reportedly weakens rules referencing the prophet Mohammed. Radical islamists had said that the bill was blasphemous.
CNN reports that demonstrators across Pakistan are finally dispersing after the country’s justice minister Zahid Hamid agreed to stand down and the government distanced itself from the changes, calling them clerical mistakes.
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Hamid had sought to defuse the scandal by posting a video on social media in which he read the oath and said he and his family were “prepared to lay down our lives for the honour and sanctity” of Islam’s holy prophet.
Pakistan has some of the most severe anti-blasphemy laws in the world. This summer a 30-year-old man was sentenced to death for a series of Facebook post that were deemed to be “derogatory remarks ... in respect of the Holy Prophet”.
Despite international condemnation, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has defended similar sentences, saying “nothing can be greater than our religion to us”.
