OF all the days in the calendar, nothing quite agitates conservative elements as does Feb 14, Valentine’s Day. This time around though, the controversy has been taken to the Islamabad High Court that passed an order against Valentine’s Day celebrations in response to a petition seeking a ban on the event for being un-Islamic and encouraging immorality, nudity and indecency. The court directed the secretaries of the ministries of information and broadcasting, information technology, and the Pemra and PTA chairmen to stop the “promotion” of Valentine’s Day in the media and the chief commissioner Islamabad to not allow any public celebration of the event. Following the ruling, the capital administration cancelled permissions that had been given to hotels, restaurants and clubs for holding activities pertaining to the occasion. Among others affected by the order were vendors selling flowers, balloons and greeting cards, some of the staple paraphernalia of Feb 14.

We need to have a public debate in legal circles as to whether a court can pass an order that may come across as unduly harsh and restrictive of behaviour that is considered by many as harmless, especially in a society whose problems stem far more from an excess of hatred rather than love. For several years now, close-minded elements in society have been pursuing a concerted and ludicrous campaign to demonise Valentine’s Day, and the court’s ruling may be perceived by them as encouragement to expand their moral policing. A report in this paper yesterday illustrated the absurd measures that young people on campus, mostly out of fear of intimidation by right-wing student groups, have begun taking to avoid even appearing to celebrate the day, such as not wearing red. Moreover, the order — other than the portion relevant to the chief commissioner Islamabad — that has been issued by a single judge on a petition filed by an individual based on the latter’s personal definition of morality, may be perceived as censorship that affects the entire country. Thanks to conservative elements in society, Pakistan is being held up to ridicule in the international media. This unfortunately reinforces the impression of the country as a dour, cheerless place where personal freedoms taken for granted elsewhere are strictly regulated. Is this the sort of image-building that Pakistan needs at this point — and all this kerfuffle over an innocuous event that, if anything, promotes little more than a one-day boom in red roses?

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2017