Syrian government has approved the removal of the 48 year-old emergency law as the protests continue.

President Bashar Al-Assad has called it a ‘concession’ to his people who have been demonstrating against his regime for the weeks. Tuesday’s move to lift the law was a demand from the protesters.   A senior lawyer said Assad was yet to sign the legislation, but that his signature was a formality.

According to the country’s official SANA news agency the government also abolished the state security court, which handled the trials of political prisoners, and approved a new law allowing the right to peaceful protests, reports Al-Jazeera.

The interior ministry however, has passed a law to prohibit protests without obtaining permission, said the agency hours after the ministry banned political protesting.

Syria’s emergency law gave the government a free hand to arrest people without charge and extended the state’s authority into virtually every aspect of citizens’ lives.

“The people on the ground here really wanted to see not only that court dissolved but also the state of emergency lifted because of these arbitrary detentions, as they would put it,” says Cal Perry Al-Jazeera’s correspondent in Damascus.

But before the decision was made to lift the law, security forces fired at protesters killing at least six and wounding dozens.

Homs, the third largest city of Syria which currently occupied by protesters, resembles a ‘war zone’.

The protesters have announced a three-day strike and have all business and trade closed till then.

“They have blocked all the roads to the square with fire trucks,” said Abu Mohammed, a local university student. “It’s like a war zone. There is glass everywhere and we can see snipers on the roof tops,” he continues”.

Read it at Al Jazeera.