LAHORE: The Multan district administration has conditionally allowed holding of the Aurat March at the city’s Nawan Shahar Chowk on Wednesday (today).

Multan Deputy Commissioner Umar Jahangir on Tuesday conditionally allowed holding of the march on the application filed for the purpose by Aurat March organisers’ counsel Advocate Hadi Ali Chattha.

According to a DC office’s notification, the permission is granted in favour of the Aurat March organisers on the recommendation of the District Intelligence Committee under different conditions.

As per the notification, the marchers will strictly observe all rules / regulations and municipal laws and the organisers will be responsible for any damage to the public property during the event.

The notification says the use of deck/speakers/sound amplifier shall be regulated inside boundary wall under the provision of the Punjab Sound System Regulation (Amended) Ordinance, 2015 and shall not be used during prayers and Azan timings.

It further says that no speaker banned by the government should be permitted to participate in the event, while the applicants shall ensure traffic flow is not disrupted because of the activity.

It says that display of firearms shall be strictly prohibited and fireworks shall not be used.

The conditions also include that no public performance will be conducted which comes under the purview of gambling, obscenity tending to outrage religious feelings of the public.

The organisers shall make sure that all the conditions are fulfilled until the programme concludes.

The notification says that no utterance likely to injure the feeling of any religious group/party/sect shall be allowed.

It says that the district administration has the right to cancel this NOC any time, without any warning or reason.

The organisers shall not allow more than 200 participants and should ensure that only vaccinated individuals participate in the event observing Covid-19 protocols.

One of the organisers, Laiba Zainab, welcomed the issuance of the NOC by the district administration, saying although they had objections to some of the conditions, they had to implement the orders for maintaining a peaceful atmosphere during the event.

She says the administration has also ordered provision of security to the march participants.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023