KARACHI, July 5: A protest demonstration was held at Karachi Press Club on Friday against the gang-rape of a young woman on the orders of a Jirga near Multan, and the protesters demanded exemplary punishment to the culprits.

The demonstration was organized by various NGOs and civil society organizations to condemn the incident and press the government to arrest and punish the culprits immediately.

The demonstrators raised slogans in support of their demands urging immediate arrest of all the culprits of the Meerwala gang-rape case.

The organizers also distributed a statement which said “on one day the Punjab governor had announced action against the culprits, and the next day another woman was raped by a landlord and his friends in other part of the country, which shows that victimization of women continued unabated.”

The statement further said this incident in which rape was committed as a jirga edict as punishment, and the parading of a poor helpless young woman in front of an assembly of 1,000 dumb witnesses was an act of savagery unheard of even in primitive barbaric societies.

“What use are laws if money decided everything,” the statement said.

It said the Hudood Ordinance and other “discriminatory” laws had placed women on the periphery of justice and despite protests and scathing criticism from within and outside the country, no government, including the present one, repealed these laws.

It also regretted that “the majority of the politicians and Ulema have maintained silence over the gang-rape case.”

It demanded that all Jirga and discriminatory laws be abolished and an effective police system be created, meaningful and adequate judicial reforms be introduced so that all women were protected from exploitation and injustices.

It demanded that exemplary punishment be given to all those involved, directly or indirectly, in the crime.

It urged the Justice Riaz Ahsan Commission to not only investigate the Meerwala incident but all such similar incidents. It demanded that punishment be awarded to the Jirga functionaries, the rapists and the so-called law enforcers of Meerwala.

Representatives of the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid, Amnesty International, the Working Women Welfare Organization, HANDS, Reformers, Falah Trust, Mufad-i-Aamma, Lyari Skill Development, Baanhn Beli, SAARC Women’s Association, Soroptomist, SEWA, Helpline Trust and others participated in the protest demonstration.