Poorest nations in south america and it also has the highest murder rates in the world its the opposite with the headlines on aljazeera plenty more news on aljazeera dot com coming up next sits inside story. I swear every. First came the protests and then the resignation of government minister in pakistan has steps down after days of destructive protests and accusations of blasphemy it was organized by a new Political Movement so how powerful are all groups like these this is inside story. And i there and welcome to the program im noriko protest leaders in pakistan have called off a three week sit in in the capsule after a government minister resigned it was a victory for the protest leaders who had been demanding zite hammad step down over the wording of a palm entry they accused him of blasphemy the ministers apologized saying it was a clerical error. Pakistan political boss he led by the scala dean hussein lisbie says the change in wedding represented a softening of the states position towards the mahdi set were banned from identifying as muslim in pakistan in one nine hundred seventy four so lots of us gus was our guest spot in just a moment but first this report from come on in islamic law. This is the epicenter of a protest that began twenty two days ago why did the board start damned by Government Security forces deployed to protect their intersection called fragile that changed everything the writing then spread across the country for him the law minister daughter dying but educated few know tens of thousands of supporters are now gathering at this point which will be remembered for a long time to come and ignore judge the law minister already paid a price but did it know it getting predicted them against their country did minister who had failed to deliver and fair to call the problem it sure did it or dysfunctional government in islamabad that cannot go and draw anything and it all. Gone mostly league now why its going to dig heavier direction from what happened here theyre going to lose support and hard line which are the point drop in it seems it may be the beginning of the end of the ruling party ylem. Blasphemy is a highly contentious issue in pakistan and there have been a number of high profile cases in recent years since one nine hundred ninety at least seventy three people have been killed over alleged last with us according to an aljazeera tally in April Michelle khan was stripped beaten shot and then thrown from the second floor of his University Dormitory after being falsely accused of blasphemy as the baby whos a christian was convicted and sentenced to hang in two thousand and ten after an argument with a listening woman over a bowl of water two prominent politicians who tried to help her with both assassinated she remains on death row and have been many bassman latest attacks over the past few years forcing some minorities to flee the country. Well its now talk to our guests here in doha interviewed achmad investigative journalist and academic in lahore joining us via skype akhmed rushy to rise to an author on the book taliban militant islam oil and fundamentalism in central asia and in london nadia mann relief and protection manager at Amnesty International a very warm welcome to all of you thanks for being here with us on inside story first was give an idea of whats actually happening in pakistan at the moment where the protesters may have ended their citizens but all they going to be coming back out onto the streets. Well i think its. Much deeper roots that the question of religious tolerance. The government apologized about the role. That it took a change the wording. To learn about. The cumulation a progress in the build up to the election next year. In the. Mental part. Of the corporate military united of course but theres a lot of speculation that some of the party that been. Particularly. The leader. I was responsible for the mumbai probing into. It made great promoter right and. It will be starting a religious movement also. Group. Country where protests were actually. In. The room. But the number of people. So maybe if i started to. Tell my students and the things if this group is so small and such a fringe group how do they manage to be so successful how does it manage to hold cities to islamabad and other cities for three weeks when the ruling partys policy since it took over the government has been to wait out the crisis they would not handle the friend his his his. Cabinet ministers would not handle the situation and would not address the issues then just read it out and try to find where around it and thats what didnt work previously and it didnt work this time as well but now there will be a cost be a huge cost which will basically impinge on backpacks on was to make no odds future showing in the elections and even in the build up to that it may cause you know desertions within the party and it will be. Of course pakistan must make the mass has still some time to going to continue doing till the election date is announced and the term is complete its really a dysfunctional government and it hasnt been able to address much of the issues that we are facing bush said we will look more at the impact this is had on the ruling party in the government just a moment not here first of all that was able to bring you in here because a sense oblivious protester about this change to the electoral law whether or not that was the protestors endgame is something well also look at but just talk us through why these changes course so much upsets. The change was as you know relating to the emma the cause or it was relating to. An amendment to the election law in pakistan and it caused a lot of upset because it was seen as though the government was softening on its on its. Take on the image the issue in pakistan now it didnt have very much to do with the blasphemy laws but the blasphemy laws were used as a ruse to spark up religious sentiment and thats what the really dangerous thing around everything thats happened in the past three weeks and a little bit longer has been is that the blasphemy laws as we know have been used. By religious by a religious parties by a lot of different people not just against religious minorities but also against the. Largely sunni majority in pakistan also and they have been used for political reasons have been used for religious motives theyve been used for personal motives but now we have seen that on a very large scale they have been i know that you know i was there she had said that it was a small protest and it was but the ramifications of it and are very very very big i just want to know whether the government was actually trying to soften its stance on the bodies because theyre not recognized as muslim in pakistan was the government trying to take a small step between the towards being more inclusive more tolerance. Its very difficult to say what the reason was for the change the government has said that it was a clerical error theyve issued theyve started an investigation into why the changes took place and thats one of the things that were signed upon in the agreement that the government signed with the protesters today they said that they would release a report of the inquiry so its very difficult to say what the reasons were but whatever those reasons were that they dont give a religiously motivated by land group the right to hold an entire capital hostage and in many ways i was in islamabad myself a few days ago where there was a massive lockdown it was very difficult to enter but from rather twenty or thirty of an old road twenty there were massive road blockages people couldnt go to work people will stop from going to the hospital and a little child also died because he couldnt make it to the hospital in time he was he was caught up in the in the traffic jam caused by the protest so this kind of holding a country to hostage for and demand and issuing threats against citizens of the country against sitting government ministers its just on except unacceptable and it shows that the government was unable to essentially uphold rule of law and it sets a very very dangerous precedent in terms of what might follow essentially shows that the government is weak the state cant enforce its writ and that anybody can essentially just come and use a blasphemy laws as a ruse and and and hold many people hostage i mean the law minister stepping down its a big absolutely i mean we all say situation where are we where we think groups like this holding the government or whom ever they choose to hold where the justice ministers or just individuals on the street to ransom using the blasphemy law. Yes but i think you know much political. Remember belong to a ruling party a grimace lot is the Prime Minister to resign and the finance minister and i didnt. Really mention a minute. The same group is trying to get another minister. To resign and i didnt back to the demonstration thats still continuing because they want this minister to regard. Only. One. Well i really. Dont know a lot of pressure on the guy on the box or even particularly still the acting head of the ruling even though hes not Prime Minister. The problem is he wants to wait until. There will be elections. Which hed like to do in the last. You try to drag. The political opposition to religion. In the military. To wait that long. And they wont can. Presumably. Have to fight the election. Even if you know the build up a lot of the good and the military is an interesting point i want to bring that in none of the the army spent most of sunday negotiating with the government before getting involved in actually a victim in the protest as why was it so hesitant. First of all the military. Problematically has been tamely spread out and they were careful to engaging in another front which is very domestic secondly the whenever a political government invokes military into a domestic issues they would look at it from a National Security port perspective and for them this china pakistan corridor is a vital. Security issue that they have to deal with particularly regarding down south in baluchistan did did some of the concerns were genuine some of there were that the political government cannot make military escort a scapegoat for the problems that they dont address over the past and. The police that they were trying to use was ill equipped the moralize dont properly trained and there was no strategy then the government goes on and switches off blocks all the televisions that gentle tells them not to air anything they go off at the same time social media so all of these things were creating pressure on the on the military to deliver and be seen as part of whats going on and military wants to stay clear of this political mess on one side or the open in sort of the critics will say no military was behind it they were trying to instigate and they were there was a pat on the back behind these things group which of course i agree its a very small will not have a major impact on. For itself but eventually destroys the whole. Scenario for pakistan in future so they did their decision was that we would not be engaged in a situation where they could be bloodshed and they could be remick of it and if occasion for militaries on image which has been busy with visited stan and also in baluchistan and also at the border on india actually if we have. We government a weak willing posse can. At the ellen and rely on the minute she supports well i think that it is true because the minute. To go to libya you know. Its all about and. According to. The government to call it a million to restore. You know taking over without imposing martial law everyone. You know to go to exactly what the minute you would do it would mean that they would. Be protected. But the military. The government and b. P. Nor the government will. If you like. The government had to come. Up with not. Particularly humiliating because it included the recognition of the limited the release of all be productive in the belief that erected. I think government will have to pay for all the damage. To the local in the structure. Considered anything they want everything that i didnt mean for you many a thing. Now you are always saying a rise in popularity for these hardline religious groups yes and i think whats also really worrying is i mean yes as emma said a lot of it is linked to the elections its a lot of it is linked to the growing popularity of these groups and also the take down of the pm and then government but whats worrying is how the government is peddling a has been peddling and agenda that actually assist them that actually helps them along so. The government ordered that on the behest of a High Court Judgement from islam that blasphemous social media material must be taken down subsequent to that Text Messages were sent across pakistan to all its citizens saying that saying that if you if you read any blasphemous material that that it should be reported now this kind of thing is very unhelpful because essentially what it does is that it gives power to vigilant moms it gives power to people like the groups protesting to take the law into their own hands and weve seen this happen time and time again except at the frequency is now growing we saw this and. As we also see you know amnesty has recorded this extensively that once somebody is actually accused of blasphemy it doesnt matter if the accusation is correct or incorrect the mere accusation is going to land that person and his family and his lawyers and anyone else associated with them in a lot of trouble. And. The dangerous aspect of this the government doesnt clearly realize but this is now haunting the government itself the law minister you know the hope that will be provided with security and with protection and along with you know with his family with anybody who protects him but this is a larger problem and the government should tackle these laws. Immediately because unless that happens more and more space is being given to these groups by actions that theyve been helping that theyve been helping to order it this intolerance is going. The law minister at the tail pier of this group the process of the protest said that it would not issue a fatwa against the law minister is he safe thats a big question mark i dont think hes safe i dont think whatever he has he has sent out a video message and that many it just needs a couple of weeks to go in somebodies property and through all and set it alight thats it and then life for him will not be very secure the issue basically as my colleague in london was saying relates with the ville part of the Political Parties today is. Meant to morrow they could be done on the version of himself or somebody else from the Peoples Party are imminent and sparty and vendee are in a position they try to take leverage out of these controversies and would not really gather in the parliament when it went inside the parliament the only issue that is concerning is protecting the whole bugs and doesnt side too much with saudi arabia and hurt iran because there is a lobby but in general the issues that really concern a common men do not get of a collective voice within the parliament for example this issue should have been addressed right after michelle was killed in bush our but this this did not happen and it continued to linger on and we saw a Major Mission by the blockade and of you know the image issue and exports and all that like everything was it was lost and own party which is the ruling party suffered there is no political you know of consensus within the Political Parties that these are the issues we need to handle above a beyond political benefits and point scoring. I do agree with that is there anyone in pakistan that is willing or is trying to keep this sort of rising extremism in check well you know Something Like the back to me lurk frankly nobody is willing to tackle i mean the army made it clear. To. Anyone. You know again. I mean i do remember. After the killing i think im. Ready. Because the bodyguard accused the governor. And shot him dead. Really. Well. And later i think. This group. If. Many are blind to. It do you really. Think. Nobody would really take. Being accused. Of the problem let me at the political level we dont have a single politician willing to really stand up and be counted on. The middle class if you like. Middle class educated people are left. Any. Objection to the type of exchange. Where all the moderate voices in pakistan and them the motive voices are not represented in Political Parties every Political Party comes up with the same kind of faces every time and there is no real democracy or representation of people and still the election laws need reforms the election process needs defining and the media needs to. Or and follow up the story and that has been the tragedy partly to being a journalist i can say that after michele there was not enough pressure from media on. The stood to really ensure that the elaborate process of Police Reporting and the way it should be if there is a blasphemy reported it should not be a you know if there is a sin mechanism that is never in place and just that if you are socially is seen as a blasphemer one has to be feminist to face the consequences that could be enforced that the procedural issues are not in tact not being enforced and eventually people take it in their own hands thats why moderates that ever they are they are trying to divert trying to participate in political process but there is no political way as for example imran khans party which was seen as a clean Party Justice be illegal whatever it has got the same faces from the other Political Parties baptized by imran khan and then now they represent his party which is just the same minus imran khan all parties are the same so there is no such voice for the moderates who really understand and who pay the price common man in the street pay the price paid the price who could not go to work who could not open his shop so not i do you fear that were just going to see a pakistan that grows more intolerant i do fear that is its been a very depressing and very. I mean im very sad today to see the government completely capitulating to the demands of these protesters as i was coming in to the studio also heard about money being given to these protesters by the military i think that. Was of the rangers im not sure either of the two but one of one of the things that that is really worrying is the fact that these blasphemy laws are in place as you know my colleague in doha said its true that at the moment its a be a man and government it could be someone else it was a p. P. P. Government with samanthas here a few years ago it could be anyone else and while some government minister somebody meant areas might agree that the blasphemy laws either need to be amended or the procedures of gaza need to be put in place a little bit more strongly so that the misuse of these laws can be can be curtailed they would actually go ahead and make these amendments in law and policy because if they feel for their lives if a full of things like what has happened in the past couple of weeks happening to them so its a really did you know its a really tricky thing where you have but you may have some people who are on side who believe that these laws need to be put in place where citizens of the country need to be protected but theyre not been interested in x. And these are the consequences we can see that quite clearly many thanks to all three of you for joining us today for this discussion we will have to leave it. Right here in the studio when rush it and the whole im not in london. And thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website dot com and a further discussion to go to our Facebook Page facebook dot com for a. J. Inside story and also join the conversation on twitter a. J. Inside story from me and the whole team here life and. From mother to daughter an ancient craft kept alive by a bustling matriarch. From start to finish. All traditions intertwined with new designs making this familys place unique in tunisias rich tapestry. The threads at this time on a. New era in television news. It doesnt say that its a tough to do things in secret but i listen we had actual victims who had survived torture detention and this was the cause of my arrest if you could. Just stay with us. I got this conviction that everyone has a deep reservoir of thomas going to have if you give them the opportunity that wonderful things start to. Look at the actual distance theres at least twenty thousand for him to refugees who live here we badly need at this moment leadership and its an interesting fact has resigned from its going to be the next president meeting with the other guy. This is a substantive issue that has to be if youre getting anywhere in this case record that. He achieved something that never happened before. I really feel liberated as a journalist was. Going to the jews a little. Bit as djokovic. Is about to be sawn in for a few the disputed time as kenyas president as police fight with supporters of his rival. Will be live to nairobi in just a moment im fully back to go this is al jazeera also ahead Syrian Government strikes killed at least nineteen people ahead of a new round of talks which look to be in trouble even before they begin. The new evidence showing that an oil giant was allegedly complicit in punishing nigerian villagers who complained about spills and indonesias mount are going volcano continue shooting into the sky forcing the closure of one of its busiest airports for a second day. We begin in kenya where kenyatta is expected to deliver a message of you