While in a Karachi park a frenzied, self-righteous TV show host chased couples out on a date filming them without their consent last week, in Lahore the Punjab assembly passed a resolution seeking a blanket ban on music concerts in educational institutions. Both are despicable acts of moral policing in a country which offers youngsters very few opportunities to mingle. What’s next, you may well ask.
This ban thing is a nasty, rather selective business. Banning music concerts comes in the wake of a terrible accident, in which three college girls were crushed to death after a stampede ensued at a concert held recently at Lahore’s Al Hamra complex. The failure to curb rowdiness now brings on this preposterous suggestion to ban all concerts by educational institutions, whilst the rest, with a similar young audience in attendance can still go on. Bizarre but true.
Then, look at Basant. The age-old spring kite-flying festival was banned in Punjab in 2008 under court orders after the authorities failed to curb the use of killer twine. For years on end the festival was termed as an aberration in this Islamic republic, having its roots in Hindu culture, as preached by the bearded brigade. So it had to go, and not just the stray killer twine that cut the bikers’ throats.
The authorities have also banned one-wheeling on motorbikes in Lahore, but it continues to claim lives, especially on Independence Day when bikers in huge numbers take to the streets, driving rashly after having removed their bikes’ silencers. Do we ban Independence Day celebrations because we cannot control the dangerous sport?
Then, there is this deafening firing on New Year’s Eve in Karachi, which also results in loss of life; the authorities have responded by banning the celebrations and by sealing off the beach front. But they have failed to curb aerial firing which continues with a vengeance. Weddings too continue with free aerial firing as part of the festivities; logic dictates that weddings should also be banned because the people will not mend their ways. Road accidents too claim the highest number of casualties in Pakistan than anywhere else in the region, and the police have failed to bring down the number of fatalities. What do we do? Ban driving as well?
How about the Muharram processions and other gatherings by religious outfits and madrassas? They too have been attacked by rival extremist groups, as have been Friday prayer congregations, and resulted in many fatalities. Do we ban all such gatherings? The Taliban have been blowing up girls’ schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; should we put a ban on girls’ schooling, as the Taliban wish we do?
Why then single out New Year’s Eve celebrations, Basant and now music concerts by educational institutions?
A church in a Karachi suburb was attacked by Muslim extremists over Christmas and the celebrations were called off in the entire area by Christians under pressure; this too amounted to a ban being placed on their worship by sheer social pressure. No court, from the lowest to the highest in the land, took half as much interest in the incident as they did, say, in Basant.
The magistrate in Rabwah, Punjab, now rechristened as Chenab Nagar just to spite the majority Ahmadi community residents there, keeps renewing the ban on Ahmadis’ religious congregations month after month and year after year. There is legislation on the statute books that systematically discriminates against Ahmadis, and no one finds anything wrong with this witch hunt. No righteous judge finds this ungodly act a breach of the basic freedom of citizens to practise their faith as guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan.
Why must we be condemned to live in a land of selective bans? Bans that state institutions and pressure groups impose with complete impunity. Such questions need to be asked, and answers demanded.
The writer is a member of the staff at Dawn Newspaper.
AGREED. But we shall also consider the position of Govt. Whenever there is any causality in any event, be it Basant, New year Eve or Musical Concerts, the first reaction of the aggrieved family is “Ban it”. But imposing Ban on any public event is not a permanent solution. Authorities and shall join hands with society to find long term solution of such issues. Our society as whole needs refurbishment. We, while chanting the so called religious slogans, forgets that Islam respects the privacy of others. While blocking the roads in Congregations we forget that this may cause some great trouble to an ambulance carrying a critical patient to hospital. While celebrating the “Jashns” of all kinds with full sound system and extended Echo and Bass, we forget that there might some small kids or some heart patients residing nearby who might get disturbed. In Islam, rights of neighbors has been put in very high esteem. If we just start respecting the rights of others over ours, I bet you everyone will be getting his share. And then will be the time where no bans will be required to curb anything. If we want to get rid of Govt. imposed bans, we shall self-impose some, to make our society a peaceful one.
Raising eyebrows over couples caught in parks is hardly a great piece of writing. The Government has full authority to impose any bans required. Please let me know why millions and billions were wasted on Basant every year. If some people have excessive riches than why not spend it on the distressed poor (who we witness on daily basis). And the killings due to kite twine was just another pathetic addition. Please let me know why we are highly excessive in terms of New Year celebrations. Why were people injured or killed from stray bullets on New Year’s eve. We need all the rules and their implementation if we are to maintain our sanctity and ethics. Nothing which hurts others should be allowed, simple as that.
The bearded brigade is a queer term as all Prophets had beards, wonder why the writer is against beards.
pharoh also had a very long beard…..search it out.
and the riches of a man are HIS private possessions and he is free to do WHATEVER he wants to do with it. Failure on the part of law enforcement agencies does not make it kosher for any authority to put a blanket ban on anything
Its pertinent to note here that this has less to do with moral policing and more to do with the governments inability to follow up on implementing policy. This is accountability shift. If the govt banned kite string, then the govt would have to ensure the ban was enforced, which they cannot do bc they have never been able to consistently enforce any thing. Transferring the onus onto the citizens and arbitrarily punishing the individual is far easier than implementing policy, nationwide. This applies to every example you’ve provided above..it’s deflection of accountability, plain and simple stemming far more from incompetency than moral policing.
Written great….!
It was mean & cruel by Sama channel host Maya to chase & film young couples. She herself has a questionable past but that is not the point here. Who doesn’t anyway, as one boy pointed out. Those bunch of sick women harassed youngsters just for some quick bucks & channel TRP…shameful.
Well I am not really agree with some of your raised question marks. for instance, you are comparing two totally different points. New year’s Eve or Basant celebrations and religious gatherings should not be compared or discussed in the same manners in term of bans. living in a Islamic Republic no one has right to impose ban on any of the religious events but should have right to ban on implementing the western cultural events.
i agree. bans need to be well thought out and be effective. these bans do not have any effect other than being irksome and causing frustration in the population that has no other outlet.
The problem with pakistani is identity crisis. They are not critical thinker. They could not create anything of their own. They always look outside the pakistan for everything. When there is a basant it is very quite in india. When there is cricket world cup not many britian aware of . You name it I can prove my point. They look for biryani when they are in foreign land and they look for pizza when they are in home. Media has own interest to introduce foreign events. A decade ago hardly anybody know about valentines day until newspaper start covering the event. There many other country with more literacy rate than pakistan that do’nt welcome events that author promoting.
We are that pigeon which either choose not to fly or is unable to fly, thus relying only on shutting the eyes at the sight of a cat.
I am not youth, my kids are university going. I do believe that we should not close every venue of entertainment in our society, on the self righteous grounds. You may burn US flag inside USA, but our lawmakers are banning words and comments such as “Pakistan may break or can break.” May be our wise parliamentarians or even wiser establishment is thinking that events in 1970 were due to the reason that these sentences were not banned. Good Luck.
Well said Mr. MURTAZA RAZVI.
Totally agree with you, I feel the degeneration of a nation starts from the top and slowly
poisons everything. I hope and pray, majority votes in the next election and bring a change, that is our only hope.
I fully agree with the writer that the right of the government to regualte activities that might affect thepublic good should be excercised fairly, equitably and across the board, not selectively.
I have a solution to all this..since most of these events are occasions where people are having fun or enjoying themselves, let’s just ban fun..that should make the beards happy enough to have fun…BUT..that’s banned isn’t it???..
Unless people give more importance to intelligence and common sense this things will keep continuing. You have stopped asking questions, you have stopped thinking, you have stopped putting yoursleves in others shoes, you have stopped thinking why God created this diverse land, this is why all this is happening. There is no solution outside, it is within yourselves. Think, ask question, feel.
Very well said, I wonder you can convince our ignorant parliamentarians. Or perhaps they find it easy to ban things to cover up their inability of administration.
Thank you for writing this important piece. Being a youth myself, I completely agree with you and such bans will just aggravate frustration and problems in youth.