The Karachi police arrested on May 5 seven Aurat March activists from outside Karachi Press Club.
The activists, including Sheema Kirmani and Shahzadi Rai, had gathered outside the press club for a press conference scheduled at 4pm in which they wanted to seek a no-objection certificate for their upcoming annual march in Karachi.
The activists were later released on the orders of Sindh Home Minister Ziaul Hasan Lanjar.
“We will NOT back down from our polirics, and we will continue to demand an NOC!,” said Aurat March Karachi is a post on X.
“The state is using all its tools to suppress a women’s movement that works on cross-class issues of gender, violence and labor rights! First they kept delaying our NOC and now SEVEN organizers and volunteers have been arrested to stop them from reaching KPC! SHAME,” it added in another post.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the arrests. “This incident is not isolated overreach but rather part of a broader and deeply troubling pattern: the systematic denial of public space to citizens seeking to articulate their rights. The rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are constitutionally guaranteed. Preventing citizens, particularly women and marginalised groups, from even convening a press conference reflects an increasingly repressive approach to governance, where dissent is treated as a threat rather than a democratic necessity,” the commission said in its post on X.
