The petition, filed by Judicial Activism Council Chairman Azhar Siddique, had claimed \u201cthere are various anti-state parties funding the march with the sole purpose of spreading anarchy in public.\u201d<\/p>\n
His petition also termed the march \u201cagainst the norms of Islam\u201d with a \u201chidden agenda\u201d to spread \u201cvulgarity and hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n
During today\u2019s hearing, LHC Chief Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh said \u201cunder the law and Constitution of the country, the Aurat March cannot be stopped\u201d but went on to say that the marchers should \u201crefrain from hate speech and immorality\u201d.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the police department submitted a written response on the matter and said that the march will be provided foolproof security. But the police did remind the organisers that Lahore\u2019s Mall Road was off-limits for public gatherings of any kind.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice has heard the objections [on the march] from various civil society members,\u201d the reply read. It said objections did not concern the holding of the march but on the \u201cbanners and slogans used in the march\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reiterating his statement from the previous hearing, the petitioner, Azhar Siddiqui, told the court: \u201cWe never wanted for the Aurat March to be stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nighat Dad \u2013 a digital rights expert and activist who is defending the holding of the march in court \u2013 told the petitioner: \u201cYou wrote in your petition that the march is anti-state, which is a very dangerous claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen are the beauty of our society. Then they talk about slogans like ‘Mera jism, meri marzi’ (my body, my choice). The perception in the world is that we oppress our women,\u201d Siddiqui responded.<\/p>\n
The chief justice asked how many participants are the organisers expecting to which Dad said they were expecting \u201cat least four to five thousand people including men, women and transgender people will take part in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are ready to give guarantee that no actions against the law will be take place at the march,\u201d Dad said, after which guidelines for participants of the march were then presented in court. After hearing arguments from both sides, the LHC chief justice said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no two opinions about women\u2019s rights and it is the responsibility of the organisers of the Aurat March to ensure that no immoral slogans are raised at the march.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the law and constitution of Pakistan, this march cannot be stopped,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The judge also observed that the petitioner had no issue with the march being held.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe organisers and participants of the march should remain within the ambit of the law. The police DIG Operations has assured foolproof security for the march,\u201d Justice Sheikh said.<\/p>\n
Wrapping up the petition, the court directed the Lahore district government to speed up its decision on the organisers\u2019 application to hold the march.<\/p>\n
What is the Aurat March?
\nThe \u2018Aurat March\u2019, as it has come to be known since its first iteration in 2018, was organised by Hum Aurtain \u2013 a feminist collective. It has a manifesto demanding basic rights for women in each field of life.<\/p>\n
For the past two years, it has been organised to coincide with the International Women’s Day on March 8, which is also the scheduled date for the rally this year.<\/p>\n
Last year, the holding of the rally led to a backlash against the organisers and participants for \u201cviolating Islamic principles\u201d and \u201cdisrespecting women.\u201d Most critics had issues with the placards and banners used during the march, which they said transgressed Pakistan’s cultural values. There were also reports of the organ\u00adisers of the march receiving threats on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The petition, filed by Judicial Activism Council Chairman Azhar Siddique, had claimed \u201cthere are various anti-state parties funding the march with the sole purpose of spreading anarchy in public.\u201d His petition also termed the march \u201cagainst the norms of Islam\u201d with a \u201chidden agenda\u201d to spread \u201cvulgarity and hatred\u201d. During today\u2019s hearing, LHC Chief Justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2297,2298,2309],"tags":[2481,141,142],"class_list":["post-13536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-pakistan","category-politics","tag-aurat-march","tag-karachi","tag-lahore"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13538,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13536\/revisions\/13538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspulse.com.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}