Karachi district administration issues 28-conditional NOC to Aurat March

KARACHI:

Karachi’s district administration has issued a conditional no-objection certificate (NOC) to the Aurat March for its upcoming public gathering with 28 conditions, including clauses on participants’ dress and the text written on placards, drawing sharp criticism from organizers, it emerged on Saturday.

The controversy comes after a press conference organized by the Aurat March on Tuesday was disrupted due to the detention of several organizers.

South District Deputy Commissioner Javed Nabi Khoso later gave permission through an NOC dated May 8, allowing the Aurat march to organize its event on Sunday from 3:30-7:30 pm at Sea View. The event is scheduled to coincide with Mother’s Day on May 10.

Among the conditions of the NOC were a ban on “offensive clothing”, a ban on the promotion of LGBTQ content and restrictions on anti-government and anti-religious slogans, banners and speeches.

According to the NOC, no “hateful, provocative, unethical or anti-social material” was to be displayed on charts, banners or flexes, and no speaker was to make speeches against “Pakistani ideology”, state policies or the military.

Read: Police suspended due to Aurat March attack

Participation or representation of banned organizations was also strictly prohibited. No sectarian activity or speech inciting hatred among groups or hurting public sentiments would be allowed and permission to hold the event may be revoked without assigning any reason.

The remaining issues related to security and logistics. Organizers were required to arrange volunteers to screen participants, limit entry and exit to a designated location and ensure that vehicles entering parking areas – to be established at least 200 meters from the main site – were thoroughly scanned.

Furthermore, the NOC stated that a bomb disposal team would carry out a technical review of the site, with metal and explosive detection equipment to be used.

The Loudspeaker Ordinance also had to be strictly followed, while public traffic and traffic must not be obstructed, especially on major roads and key passages. The NOC also banned aerial shooting and the use of drugs and alcohol during the event.

In the event of untoward incidents or law and order situations, route or venue disputes or security issues, the NOC declares that the organizer will be solely responsible and bear all legal consequences at its own risk and expense.

Read more: Aurat March announces satirical ‘Misogyny of the Year’ awards ahead of Mother’s Day event

The organizers must also provide a copy of the NOC to the relevant police officials, brief them on the complete nature of the event in terms of security and share a list of volunteers, the NOC said.

It added that the organizers should follow the instructions of law enforcement agencies/district administrations who may change the route or venue if necessary or order the event to end early.

Social activist Mehnaz Rahman, associated with the Aurat March, said that an NOC with so many conditions and restrictions had never been issued before, adding that the Aurat March would soon release its official position on the matter.

Reacting to the development, the group said in a social media post that its policy remained unchanged since its inception.

“We continue to witness the shrinking of political space year after year, alongside increasing state repression and brutality. Under such conditions, movements like ours are constantly forced to think about how they can continue to build collective power without increasing the danger to the very communities we stand alongside, while refusing to cede what little space remains to oppressive forces.

“The space we have built for dissent has come about through years of collective struggle. We reject the state’s labeling of groups and movements that are not legally prohibited as ‘forbidden’. As a feminist movement, we believe that such rhetoric threatens constitutional rights, democratic freedoms and the possibility of collective political struggle itself.”

The group said it would continue to build alongside marginalized communities in ways visible and hidden until the day people could speak freely without being in danger for doing so.

In a statement, Aurat March Lahore called the restrictions “manifestly unjust, illegal and oppressive” and said the conditions severely limited organizers’ and participants’ speech and violated their right to protest.

The submission said the requirement in the NOC that no slogan should be provocative, unethical or anti-social “carries no understanding of how protests work”. It stated, “protests, especially those that call out power structures such as patriarchy, are bound to be provocative.”

Aurat March Lahore added that the broad language banning “anti-state slogans” or “ideology of the state or state policy” was deliberate, aimed at forcing self-censorship and expanding restrictions on freedom of expression beyond their constitutional meaning.

They also pushed back on the ban on “offensive clothing”, saying the Sindh government “has also chosen to monitor the attire of the participants”. It said that “the state cannot dictate how people dress during and outside protests.”

Regarding the banning of a rights group, the statement said the organization was wrongly described as banned, calling it “a women-led, peaceful movement that has demanded basic human rights”.

The demand to share a list of volunteers was also condemned as “another blatant attempt to widen the web of government surveillance of movements”. The statement added that anyone who volunteers for a social movement or collective working towards social change “should be granted their right to privacy and we must resist this state’s excessive reach into movement spaces”.

“It is clear as day that these NOC terms have little to do with the safety or welfare of the public participating in the Aurat March, it is a means of controlling and diluting the politics of the march,” the statement read.

It concluded by saying, “If the Sindh government fails to respect Aurat March Karachi’s unconditional right to march, then we will hold them accountable.”