SUKKUR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Sukkur chapter, has declared the Aurat Azadi March, scheduled for March 8, against the Constitution, law and culture of the East.

An announcement to this effect was made after a meeting of the JUI-F Sukkur Majlis-i-Shura held at Jamia Madinatul Uloom Hammadia in Pannu Aqil on Tuesday.

Presiding over the shura meeting, JUI-F leader Mufti Shafi Mohammad Indhar condemned the march in strong words. He said that Islam, Pakistan’s Constitution and laws gave all fundamental rights to womenfolk.

Certain women rights organisations have planned the march for March 8 in Sukkur, like some other parts of the country, to mark the International Women’s Day.

He said the main issue was non-implementation of the laws in letter and spirit. He said some NGOs working on the agenda of the West had planned to use the occasion for holding the Aurat Azadi March. He said the shura unanimously decided to foil the march.

Mufti Indhar urged the government and local administration not to allow holding of the march which, he believed, would spread and encourage “vulgarity” in society. He said activists taking part in the march were very likely to “cross the limits set by Islam, society and the Constitution”.

Nobody could be allowed to breach the norms of society, Eastern values and traditions, Islamic and family system and law of the land in name of women’s rights, he said.

The JUI-F leader said that his party fully supported dispensation of justice to women in cases of their free-will marriage, share in property as per Shariah as well as all other rights as enshrined in the Shariah, Constitution and relevant laws.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2020