Pakistan minister resigns after violent Islamist protests

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan's law minister Zahid Hamid has resigned, state media reported Monday, meeting a key demand of Islamist protesters who have clashed violently with security forces and blockaded the capital Islamabad for weeks.

Hamid "has submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to steer the country out of crisis," the state-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said in a report citing unnamed official sources, without giving further details.

There was no immediate confirmation or comment from government officials.

The Islamist leader whose group clashed violently with Pakistani security forces and paralyzed Islamabad for weeks called off the sit-in protest Monday after the law minister resigned.

''On the assurance of the Chief of Army Staff, we are calling off the sit-in,'' Khadim Hussain Rizvi told a crowd of around 2,500 demonstrators from the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLY), who have occupied a main highway to the capital since November 6.

The decision to capitulate to the protesters' demands is a major embarrassment for the embattled ruling Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) as it eyes elections in 2018, analysts said, and underscores the influence of religious groups in the nuclear-armed nation.

On Saturday security forces attempted to clear the roughly 2,000 demonstrators at the sit-in in a botched operation that devolved into violence, with at least seven people killed and hundreds wounded before they were ordered to retreat.

The clashes fuelled more protests in other cities, including Pakistan's two largest Karachi and Lahore, and saw thousands more demonstrators arrive on the streets of Islamabad.

The government called on the army to intervene to restore order late Saturday. By Monday morning there still had been no official response from the military.

The reports of Hamid's resignation raised hopes that the protest leaders would end the sit-in, which has enraged commuters with hours-long traffic snarls, caused the death of at least one child whose ambulance could not reach hospital in time, and infuriated the judiciary.