AKIPRESS.COM - Pakistan's federal law minister has resigned, acceding to a key demand made by thousands of protesters who have blocked a major highway into the Pakistani capital for weeks, the state radio broadcaster reported.

An agreement has been signed that would see the demonstrators in Islamabad and other cities disperse, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal told the Islamabad High Court during a hearing on Monday, ending a weeks-long standoff that threatened to escalate into countrywide violence, Al Jazeera reported.

"On the assurance of the Chief of Army Staff, we are calling off the sit-in," Muslim scholar and protest leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi told a crowd of around 2,500 demonstrators in Islamabad on Monday, AFP news agency reported.

The agreement would also see all protesters who were arrested during the sit-in, which began on November 8, be released within three days.

The government will also take responsibility for paying for any damage caused to both public and private property during the protest.

An inquiry will also be ordered into a government security crackdown on Saturday which saw thousands of riot police fire tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon in an attempt to disperse the protesters.

Demonstrators fought back with stones, sticks and metal rods, and were able to beat back the authorities.

At least five people were killed and more than 217 - mostly members of the security forces - wounded in those clashes.