Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah Appointed Sir ZafarUllah as Foreign minister of Pak, we ll follow Principles of Mr… https://t.co/HVILy94lDC — Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) 1536062569000

Atif Mian was asked to step down from the Advisory Council and he has agreed. A replacement would be announced later. — Faisal Javed Khan (@FaisalJavedKhan) 1536292153000

NEW DELHI: New Pakistan PM Imran Khan 's government stuck it out for a few days there saying "we will not bow to extremists", but that position didn't last very long and under pressure from Islamic fundamentalists it told an economist to step down from a key economic group, reported Pakistan media.Why? Because the Princeton University economist Atif Mian is an ' Ahmadi '.The 'Ahmadi' sect, or the 'Ahmadiyyas', are a highly persecuted Islamic sect in Pakistan. And no matter that Mian is a highly-regarded international economist who could help pull Pakistan out of the financial mess it's in, the fact that he's an Ahmadi means he had to go. Ahmadiyyas are reviled, chiefly by the orthodox Sunni Muslims of Pakistan, because they don't believe that Mohammad is the last prophet sent to guide mankind.Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government's appointment of Mian was opposed by several individuals and groups, including the extreme Islamist group, the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). Yes, the same TLP that brought Islamabad to a standstill last November to protest what it believed was a watering down of the country's stringent blasphemy laws.It appeared that for Khan and the PTI, economist Mian's faith was a private matter, and that it believed the state should have nothing to do with it, and that it really didn't matter. It's economics they were dealing with, not theology.The PTI government firmly defended its choice and made strong statements about Pakistan being equally for minorities as it is for the majority groups."Should minorities in Pakistan be thrown out? What kind of people say things like this?" wondered Khan's minister of information Fawad Chaudhary at a public event, even as a vicious online campaign targeting Mian for being Ahmadiyya, reported newspaper Dawn earlier this week.Chaudhry didn't stop there and expressed his scorn even more strongly."This is a man who the entire world is saying will receive a Nobel Peace Prize in the next five years. He has been appointed to the economic advisory council, not the Council of Islamic Ideology or something else," said Chaudhry."I don't think anyone should have objections (to Mian's appointment), and those who do, they are basically extremists and we will not bow to extremists...Pakistan belongs as much to minorities as it does to the majority," asserted the minister.Chaudhry even posted a message on Twitter saying Pakistan's founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah too appointed an Ahmadi, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, as the country's foreign minister."We'll follow the principles of Mr Jinnah not of extremists," tweeted Chaudhry.The government's minister of human rights Shireen Mazari also came out in support and commended Chaudhry. "Exactly. Well put indeed. Time to reclaim space for the Quaid's Pakistan!"The Princeton academic did get some support from people on social media. But the fundamentalists just wouldn't back down.Just days later, on Friday, Khan's government capitulated to the extremists.A PTI senator, Faisal Javed Khan, on Friday morning, tweeted saying Mian has agreed to give up his position on the council.Even minister Chaudhry, who mere days earlier, vociferously supported a pluralistic Pakistan, appeared to have had a huge change of heart going by his tweets Friday.In fact, Chaudhry tweeted (in Urdu) - as translated by Dawn - even referring specifically to Mian's faith.He said that Prime Minister Khan and his cabinet believe that the ideal state is Madina and hold the Prophet Muhammad in high esteem."Khatm-i-Nabuwwat [belief in the finality of the prophethood] is a part of our faith and the recent success achieved by the government in the matter of blasphemous sketches is reflective of the same connection," he wrote.The capitulation was complete.