LAHORE, May 21: The Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights managed to organize a mixed ‘Marathon for Civil Liberties’ here on Saturday as the administration decided not to intervene or stop the event by force. But the route of the run was changed under a ‘contingency plan’ from Liberty Chowk to Qadhafi Stadium instead of Kalma Chowk.

Heavy contingents of police had been deployed at both gates of the stadium to prevent any untoward incident as activists of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Shabab-i-Milli were present at the Liberty Chowk and on Ferozepur Road to forcibly prevent the marathon from taking place.

However, they did not intervene when the runners headed for the stadium. A number of People’s Party Parliamentarians lawmakers, including MNA Sheri Rahman and Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Qasim Zia, also attended the race on the direction of party chairperson Benazir Bhutto.

Some foreign observers watched the event and took photographs of the runners at the stadium gate. The participants, led by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan representative Asma Jehangir, made victory signs and raised slogans against fundamentalists and the establishment all along the route.

SSP (operations) Aftab Cheema told journalists that police did not obstruct the runners because “they behaved well, did not take law into their hands and held the activity within the bounds of the stadium”.

“It was a sport activity so there is no question of a violation of Section 144,” he added. Talking to journalists after the marathon, Ms Jehangir said that the event had proved that Lahorites were enlightened and conscious people.

Asked why she was not struggling against lawlessness, poverty and unemployment, she said that participation of over 50 per cent women population in economic activities could curb poverty and that was what she was endeavouring for. Asked why she was organizng marathons at a time when the nation was protesting against the sacrilege of the Holy Quran by US interrogators in Guantanamo Bay prison, she said that as a Special UN Rapporteur for Religion, she had sent a communiqué to the US authorities before the issue was raised by others in Pakistan.