MULTAN, March 8: Scores of women rallied behind Mukhtar Mai on the eve of International Women Day demanding repeal of Hudood ordinances. Several other alleged victims of violence were also marching in the frontline along with Mukhtar Mai to what they said ‘break the silence.’

The rally was jointly organized by the Pattan Development Organisation, South Punjab NGOs Forum and Women Councillors Network.

Originally, the organisers had planned to take the rally from Sports Ground to Clock Tower Chowk. However, the district administration had banned assembly of five or more people at any public place under Section 144 of the CrPC. But, the organisers were adamant to bring out the rally as per the plan.

Sources said the situation led to several rounds of negotiations and finally it was decided that the administration would relax the ban on meetings at public places while the rally organisers would reciprocate by limiting their march from the Sports Ground to the Kalma Chowk.

The participants were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans against Hudood laws and their ‘implications’ on women of the country. Organisers claimed that women from 30 districts of Punjab, Sindh and NWFP took part in the rally.

At Kalma Chowk, several activists addressed the rally and alleged that the Hudood laws had tormented women in the country. They said about 200,000 Hudood cases were under trial with various tiers of judiciary.

“Thousands of innocent women are languishing in prisons under the Hudood laws,” they added.

They demanded implementation as regard to the Hudood laws on the recommendations of Pakistan Inquiry Commission for Women and National Commission on the Status of Women.

Speaking to the rally, Mukhtar Mai said the feudal-police collusion was a major hindrance in dispensation of justice in the rural Pakistan.

“Excesses against women can be restrained to a large extent only if the police at ‘Thana level’ may respond appropriately under the law,” she commented.

It was the second consecutive year when Mukhtar Mai led the women day rally in Multan. Last year, the day had come under a charged environment as only a few days before an appellant court had acquitted five of the six men accused in her case. The court had commuted death sentence of the sixth to life imprisonment.

Mukhtar Mai had reacted to the verdict with a pledge to take the matter to the apex court. Her case is now pending with the Supreme Court of Pakistan.