ISLAMABAD: The Awami Workers Party (AWP) has condemned what it said a smear campaign against progressives that continues almost three weeks after the Aurat Azadi March (AAM) held on March 8.

The AWP leadership and rank-and-file have vowed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with political activists in Islamabad that are bearing the brunt of patently false allegations that they raised anti-Islamic slogans and banners.

In a joint statement, the AWP leadership on Sunday noted that while the backlash against Aurat March activities from reactionary forces had been a recurring theme over the past few years, the backlash this year had targeted progressive political workers in Islamabad.

They said that two recent orders issued by sessions courts in Karachi and Peshawar directing police in these two cities to file FIRs against AAM Islamabad organisers follow a clear pattern that has been in evidence since shortly after March 8 in which events alleged to have taken place in the Karachi and Lahore Aurat March rallies had been attributed to Islamabad.

The AWP leaders said that two particular incidents had been repeated time and again that have no relation to the Aurat Azadi March event in Islamabad, namely a banner from the Lahore march and a video of sloganeering form the Karachi march. In any case, the outrageous social media propaganda that the banner and video contained blasphemous materials has been debunked. But these lies continue to be circulated, and Islamabad-based political activists repeatedly targeted.

The AWP has demanded that the PTI government take note of the fact that a smear campaign is being conducted against Islamabad-based political workers that have consistently supported not only the feminist movement in the form of the Aurat Azadi March but all class, ethnic-national, ecological and democratic movements spearheaded by progressive forces.

While the primary responsibility for the safety of peaceful political workers and to ensure that dubious elements do not inflame religious passions on the basis of clearly doctored materials lies with the government, the AWP calls on all progressive and democratic forces to stand clearly against the victimisation of the feminist movement and Islamabad’s progressive political workers.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2021