Government has proposed an amendment in the oath by Members of Parliament.
What is the ongoing problem?
The changes made in the oath reportedly moderated the mention of Prophet Muhammad.
The protesters are alleging that this would amount to blasphemy, a highly contentious issue in Muslim Pakistan.
They also claim that the oath was softened to enable the participation of Ahmadis, a long-persecuted Islamic minority sect.
The Prime Minister withdrew the proposed amendment in the wake of Islamist protests, hoping that it would pacify them.
However, Islamist groups, led by the chief of Tehreek-i-Labaik, continued to demand the resignation of Pakistan's law minister.
The Government of Pakistan closed down all television news channels for a day and shut down Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Moreover education institutions have had to be closed for few days in parts of the country.
How was the problem resolved?
The protest finally ended following an agreement between the protesters and the government.
The agreement was mediated by a Major General of the Inter-Services Intelligence, and the Law Minister resigned.
The signed agreement concludes with crediting the Army Chief and his representative team for their “special efforts” in mediation.
However, the Islamabad High Court has criticised the Interior Minister for giving the military the role of “mediator”.
This is notably since the military had turned down the civilian government’s request to intervene earlier.
The judge bravely noted that this was “proof of the military’s involvement”.
What is the larger concern?
Military - Various evidences clearly suggest that dharnas were supported by very senior members of Pakistan’s Army.
They are suspectedly using the agitation as a means to dismiss the democratic governments.
In the current standoff, for a small and insignificant group to be so well coordinated across diverse cities adds to the above speculation.
Also, the military did not respond to the earlier call by the civilian government to render law and order duty according to the Constitution.
This was a clear act of disobedience and of destabilising further a weak government.
Government - Ever since the return to democracy in 2008 in Pakistan, the threat by extra-democratic means of destabilising democracy has loomed large.
Particularly, now Pakistan is in a vulnerable condition trying to stabilise itself under a new Prime Minister, after earlier PM Nawaz Sharif was disqualified on charges of corruption.
Given this, the recent protest by a minuscule political entity of unarmed men has created such a major crisis for the government.
The government is criticised for its delayed response and certainly letting the organisation consolidate to gain strength and support.
Democratic Politics - The cause of the current stand-off could be that non-mainstream parties now do politics outside the rules of democratic politics.
Or the rules of democratic politics have changed to include disruptive activities which might completely destabilise democracy itself.
Clearly, religious groups and parties are far better organised and committed than the liberal organisations and the civil society.
On the other hand, the military overrules its chief executive and the civilian government.
Military has become indispensible to ensure agreements between the government and protesters.
All these are indicative of the changing nature of democratic politics in Pakistan, the continuing erosion of executive authority and the rising instability of the government.
