Pakistan Minister Resigns as Officials Bow to Islamists’ Demands

Pakistan’s law minister resigned Monday after the embattled government bowed to demands from a small Islamist group, striking a deal with the help of the military to end a weeks-long anti-blasphemy protest, according to AFP.

At the site of the sit-in which had blocked a major road into Islamabad, demonstrators were slowly packing up tents and walking to bus stops as shops and markets reopened for the first time since the protest began.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi and his supporters from the once-obscure Tehreeki-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLY) group had paralysed the capital since November 6 with just 2,000 demonstrators, enraging millions of commuters and the judiciary who blasted the government for hesitating to act against them.

Analysts said the capitulation to him and his supporters was an unsettling sign of the influence even marginal religious groups wield in Pakistan and an embarrassment for the government before elections due in 2018.

The demonstrators demanded the resignation of law minister Zahid Hamid over a hastily-abandoned amendment to the wording of an oath which election candidates must swear.

The change was small and quickly reversed, but the TLY linked it to blasphemy, a hugely charged issue in the conservative Muslim country.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) remained silent Monday, with no official comment on the report by state media that Hamid had resigned.

But a triumphant Rizvi called off the sit-in in a statement to supporters, saying the army had guaranteed their demands would be met and thanking the powerful military chief for “playing his role.