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December 29, 2005
Wedding extravaganza
This is the wedding season. Jewellers, dress-makers, hairdressers, caterers and everyone else who has something to contribute to a wedding is doing a roaring business. The wedding season specially, in the upper classes, is now linked to the holiday schedule in Europe and America.
There are two distinct seasons for weddings in Pakistan, one stretching during the summer holidays and the other during the winter break, when youngsters studying or working abroad have a chance to attend weddings of siblings and other close relations. Some areas light up like a Christmas tree during this time with one event follows another.
Food is just a small part of the lavish spending that goes into these parties which now also include professional event management by companies charging an arm and a leg to imaginatively decorate the party area. The variety of tents on offer is also mind-boggling. These can cost you anywhere from 300,000 to half a million, some with provision for air-conditioning during summer.
The good old shamina is now out and the present canopy comes in several colours, shapes and textures depending on how much one is willing to spend. In this backdrop, to consider serving food as wasteful expenditure, is a little difficult to understand. This, however, is the law and serving food has been declared unlawful by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the concerned authorities have been asked to implement this firmly and ensure the writ of the court.
As the winter wedding season is in full swing, one is flooded by wedding invitations and as one goes through them one tends to wonder if these people have ever heard of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Not a single card proclaims mere refreshments, rather boldly invites one to lavish dinners in prominent clubs, wedding houses and private homes. Any interference by law enforcing agencies can be settled in a mutually satisfying manner, they ensure their guests. Some communities have adopted innovative ways such as holding a religious function like milad or majlis prior to the wedding and serving food in the name of that function.
Some have discovered long overdue aqiqas and even circumcision ceremonies to cover themselves legally. Frankly speaking, implementing this law is an uphill task for the law enforcing agencies.
As people eat food at weddings across the country they debate the merits and demerits of the law. Some argue that if the law aims at curbing wasteful expenditure it should focus on all aspects of marriage, not just food. A major concern is that a law that is so hard to implement promotes lawlessness in the country and even citizens who are otherwise law abiding tend to break the law.
Another very valid concern is that the law enforcing agencies are always complaining of being stretched to the limit and, therefore not able to cope with more serious crimes like dacoities, kidnapping, murder, car and cellphone snatching etc. If at the end of the day they also have to monitor hundreds of thousands of homes, clubs and hotels to catch violators of this law then it is really asking for the impossible.
Is there a solution to this problem? We have to look at the problem in its right perspective. This is a centuries old social problem which has its roots entrenched in traditions and customs. It is futile to try to solve it through enactment of laws as their implementation face obvious problems. It has to be solved through educating the masses and one way would be to stop glorifying these wasteful expenditures in the media. The elite classes can set an example by having simple graceful weddings for their children.
It is not possible to stem this tide simply by legislation as the Supreme Court has pointed out. Only a social revolution that emphasizes simple living can do the trick, but that is really a far fetched dream given the fact that we are now part of the global village with its culture of wasteful spending that drives the world’s economy.
Serving food at weddings is just the tip of the iceberg and covers just 10 per cent of the wedding expenditure. There is a need to address the entire nature of wasteful expenditure in society and only then can there be hope to bring about real and meaningful changes in society.
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