ON the eve of International Women’s Day, Islamabad Police detained dozens of Aurat March activists who had gathered near the National Press Club to demand gender justice. Their supposed offence was participating in a peaceful assembly deemed unlawful under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code after the district administration denied a no-objection certificate for the march. Though all those detained were later released, the episode is troubling. The optics could hardly have been worse. Women demanding protection from gender-based violence and discrimination were rounded up by the very state meant to safeguard their rights. Even those who arrived at the police station seeking information about detained participants were reportedly held inside. Such heavy-handedness reflects a troubling pattern in Pakistan where the constitutional right to peaceful protest is routinely curtailed through administrative orders and policing tactics.

Section 144 exists for a reason. The state must have the authority to prevent violence or imminent threats to public order. Yet the provision has increasingly become a blunt instrument deployed to pre-empt dissent rather than address genuine security concerns. When peaceful gatherings are treated as law-and-order risks, the state effectively criminalises civic engagement. The Aurat March has, since 2018, become a visible platform for women and marginalised groups to raise issues that are often ignored: domestic violence, forced marriages and access to justice. Agree or disagree with the marchers’ slogans, their right to assemble and speak must remain protected. Democracies do not thrive by silencing voices that challenge prevailing social or political norms. Authorities often justify such detentions by citing the risk of confrontation with hostile groups. But the state’s responsibility is to protect peaceful demonstrators, not suppress them. Yielding public space to those who threaten disruption only emboldens intolerance. Pakistan’s democratic credibility rests on how it treats peaceful dissent. Release after arbitrary detention does little to restore that credibility.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2026