PESHAWAR: A local court on Wednesday reserved its order over an application of a local lawyer seeking directives for the police to register an FIR against organisers of the ‘Aurat March’ in Islamabad over the shouting of ‘anti-Islamic’ slogans in their International Women’s Day procession on March 8.

Judge Syed Shaukatullah fixed tomorrow (Friday) for pronouncing the order.

The application is filed by lawyer Ibrar Hussain under Section 22-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which empowers the court to act as ‘Justice of Peace’ and order the registration of an FIR of an offence in case of the police’s failure to do so.

Ajmal Mohmand and Gohar Saleem, lawyers for the applicant, contended that on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the organisers of Aurat March had staged processions in different cities.

Lawyer seeks action over ‘anti-Islamic’ slogans

They said such a march was held in Islamabad, where the participants had shouted anti-Islamic slogans hurting religious sentiments of a large number of people.

The lawyers said the government and Islamabad administration had so far not taken any action against the organisers of that march.

They said the applicant had also approached Peshawar’s East Cantonment Police Station for the registration of the case but the police were reluctant to act accordingly.

The counsel contended that a cognisable offence had taken place during the Aurat March, so it was the duty of the police to register FIR against the event organisers.

They requested the court to issue directives to the officials of the West Cantonment Police Station to register the FIR against the organisers and take appropriate action against them.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council had also passed two resolutions in its meeting on Mar 15 and had demanded of the government to take action against the organisers and different NGOs which had organized Aurat March in different cities.

The Bar Council had claimed that the participants of those marches were involved in desecrating the holy personalities of Muslims through sloganeering and provocative banners, so they deserved to be treated strictly.

Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate on Wednesday sent to prison on 14-day judicial remand a woman charged by the local police with killing her brother-in-law’s two-and-a-half-year-old son.

The suspect was produced before judicial magistrate Lateef Shah after the completion of the three-day physical custody with the police.

She was arrested last Saturday by officials of Paharipura police station claiming that she had decapitated the minor boy before throwing the body on rooftop.

The child, who belonged to Kurram tribal district, accompanied his grandmother to the residence of his paternal uncle in Peshawar and went missing last Friday. His body was found the next day.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2021