Residents happy as key road reopens

islamabad — Commuters were jubilant on Tuesday as a main highway into Islamabad reopened three weeks after a sit-in by hardliner group blocked it, as uneasy soul-searching grew among many Pakistanis over the government’s ‘capitulation’ to the protest demands.

The Islamabad Highway, used daily by thousands travelling from the garrison city of Rawalpindi into the Pakistani capital, was back to normal on Tuesday, with traffic flowing, shops open, and sanitation workers cleaning up the mess left behind by the protesters.

The previously little-known hardline group Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLY) had virtually paralysed Islamabad, where there is little in the way of public transportation. Drivers were forced to go hours out of their way on overcrowded, potholed sideroads unsuited for heavy traffic.

“Everything clear and moving. Its (sic) good to be back in route,” commuter Nauman Naseer posted on a Facebook traffic updates group. But joy on the roads was dampened for many Pakistanis by fear that a dangerous precedent has been set.

TLY had demanded the resignation of Pakistan’s law minister Zahid Hamid over a small, hastily-reversed amendment to the oath election candidates must swear.

The demonstrators had linked the change to blasphemy, a hugely sensitive charge in Pakistan.

The government was forced to seek help from the military — widely seen as the country’s most powerful institution — after a bungled attempt to clear the sit-in over the weekend devolved into deadly violence. —

everything clear and moving. It’s good to be back in route Nauman Naseer, A commuter in Islamabad