Islamists hail ousting of Pakistani law minister

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Islamists celebrated their victory over the government yesterday after the country’s law minister resigned, caving in to fundamentalist protesters who have been demanding his ousting in a three-week-long rally.

After Zahid Hamid’s resignation, the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah party, which was behind the sit-in in Islamabad and protests in other cities and towns across Pakistan, said they were dispersing peacefully under an agreement with the government.

The development underscored how a small Islamist party was able to pressure the Pakistani government and force it to accept its demands through a protracted stand-off that started earlier in November.

The Islamists had demanded Hamid’s resignation over an omitted reference to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in a parliamentary bill. He apologised for the omission in the bill, saying it was a clerical error that was later corrected.

But the Islamists persisted, taking to the streets and setting up their sitin on the edge of the Pakistani capital. The Islamists effectively blocked the country’s key highway, the Grand Trunk Road motorway linking Islamabad with the eastern Punjab province and the north-west, disrupting life and forcing commuters to look for alternate routes.

Clashes erupted on Saturday when riot police tried to disperse the sit-in and descended on the protesters with tear gas and batons, leaving six dead and dozens injured. The violent crackdown also triggered solidarity protests by Islamists in other Pakistani cities and towns, leading to what could have been a major political crisis that could have paralysed cities. – AP