HYDERABAD, April 3 Activists of Awami Tehrik and Sindhiani Tehrik led by party chief Rasool Bux Palijo held a demonstration outside the press club on Friday in protest against lashing in public of a young girl in Swat.

Palijo termed the incident barbaric and said it spoke volumes for the inefficiency of the rulers. A handful of people had enforced their own laws and the government appeared totally helpless before them, he said.

No one can be allowed to take law into his own hands, he said and added that if the government was unable to enforce its writ, it should resign.

He said that Quaid-i-Azam had not visualized a Pakistan where women were flogged and humiliated in public. It was the worst example of barbarism and terrorism, he said.

Other leaders of the party called upon members of the parliament, international and national human rights organisations, civil society activists and superior judiciary to take notice of the inhuman incident.

Office-bearers of SPO, Sparc and Sindh Development Society in a joint statement protested against flogging of the girl.

In the presence of judiciary, such courts had no right to award punishments, they said and appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry to take notice of the incident and put the Qazis in the dock.

They demanded that the so-called Shariat system of Sufi Mohammad should be abolished.