Abstract
The year 1977 is marked fateful for the democracy in Pakistan as it witnessed the elections, the agitation against alleged electoral rigging of Z.A. Bhutto and ultimately enforcement of martial law. This paper revisits the usage of religious concepts and ideals to pursue the political ends, a trend quite common in Pakistani politics. The paper analyses the composition, leadership, formation, demands and results of the agitation that in the end was labeled as Tehrik-e-Nizam-e-Mustafa (Movement for the System of Prophet).It is argued that religious mantras were raised and utilized skillfully for the purpose of mobilization and motivation of the general public who were called to streets to pressure Bhutto for political deal. The multi-dimensional nature of the allied political parties in Pakistan National Alliance that led the protest movement have been highlighted in support of the argument. The parties belonged to both religious and secular strata and they came close to each other in order to gain a common political cause to oppose Bhutto. The parties did not agree on the religious objective. They, in the contrary, agreed on political objective of re-election and ouster of Prime Minister Bhutto. The protest movement was closed without achievement of religious goals but the leaders claimed success on the grounds of political gains. It is, therefore, concluded that religious sentiments of people were provoked as motives to join the political protest movement. The absent of mention in parleys and post movement silent escape from the demand of the enforcement of system of prophet has been exposed. The paper surveys the history of demonstration through examination of documentary and archival sources, narratives of oral history, and primary as well as secondary sources of the time under study.