Govt orders investigation into ‘objectionable activities’ during Aurat March 2021

• The federal government has ordered a probe into "objectionable activities" during the Aurat March event hosted in the federal capital.
• He says they were trying to reach facts into video and other content appearing on social media with regard to objectionable activity.
  
• The minister also says the elements responsible for photo-shopped banners on social media will also be taken to task.
  

ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of social media reports, the federal government has ordered a probe into "objectionable activities" at the ‘Aurat March’ event hosted in the federal capital on March 8.

At the same time, the government has also said it will be taking to task all elements responsible for photoshopped banners and doctored videos shared on social media.

According to a news report published in The News on Monday, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri said the government had ordered an investigation into the issue of blasphemous slogans allegedly raised on International Women's Day as well as the display of objectionable banners.

The minister, in a statement, said: “Pakistan is a country of the faithful and no such activity in this part of the world can be allowed.”

Read more: Aurat March 2021 placards go viral on social media

He maintained that the authorities were trying to reach the facts regarding videos and other content appearing on social media with regard to objectionable activities which allegedly took place at the ‘Aurat March’ on March 8.

“Whosoever is involved in the activity will be exposed and punished according to the law,” he asserted.

Read this too: Aurat March organisers issue clarification on doctored video, misrepresented banner

Organisers of the Aurat March had earlier provided a clarification following controversy surrounding a video and a banner from their 2021 events in Karachi and Islamabad, which generated anger and criticism on social media.

In their statement, the organisers said the video and banner were "targeted and manipulated to spread misinformation and malign the march".

"This year, one of our videos was doctored and heinous allegations are being placed on us as a result."

The video, the march organisers said, had been edited to include subtitles which maliciously misinterpreted the word "Orya" ( reference to a columnist) to the word 'Aulia'. Similarly, words like "mullah" and others were doctored and twisted to other words which changed the content drastically, the organisers said.

To support their statement, the Aurat March organisers also shared the original video clip from the march, in which correct words were used and correct subtitles provided.

A picture of a banner from the march was also circulated on social media owing to the wordings on it. The march's organisers refuted all allegations that the content on it was blasphemous in nature.

According to a statement posted on social media, the organisers of the event have clarified that a woman had only shared her experienced of being sexually assaulted by a much older man and had written down her ordeal on the banner. Any other meaning being ascribed to it is misleading and false, they said.

Controversy over the Aurat March and its posters and banners is not new. However, this year marked a dangerous development in that the women's rights movement was presented as being anti-religion and going against deeply held social values.