PESHAWAR, Nov 15: Women lawyers on Wednesday staged a demonstration in protest against the adoption of the Hasba bill and urged the NWFP governor not to sign it. The protesters also called upon the chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Peshawar High Court to take suo motu notice of the issue, restraining the governor from signing the bill.

The protesters, who were led by Mussarat Hillali, S. Naz Mohammadzai and Shehnaz Hameed Khattak, took out a procession from the high court premises and staged a sit-in in front of the Governor’s House.

They also presented a memorandum at the Governor's House.

The lawyers termed the Hasba Bill a bid to create a parallel judicial system. They said that the bill vilated the Constitution.

"This bill is aimed at imposing the clerics’ version of martial law. The provincial, district and tehsil mohtasibs will all be clerics and they will curb civil liberties in their areas of jurisdiction," said Ms Hillali, former vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

She said that laws were available for almost all matters mentioned in the Hasba Bill and it overlapped other laws, including the Local Government Ordinance, adding that who could guarantee that the ‘anti-vice police’ would not limit the civil liberties.