Tuesday, Mar 04, 2003
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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
There are alarming reports in the Pakistani media about the rough treatment meted out to cultural artists in the province as the right-wing alliance considers music, dance and cinema as vice. It appears that the Government headed by Akram Durrani is contemplating legislation for the creation of a vice and virtue squad on the lines of the erstwhile Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban vice and virtue police became notorious for its peculiar interpretation of Islam and what is permissible in the name of culture. ``We are victims of both customs and technology. The MMA's policies too are scary,'' said the owner of a cinema for almost 30 years. For this reason most cinemas, which occupy prime locations in the city, are now being converted into commercial centres, shopping plazas, marriage halls and auditoriums, according to a report from Peshawar in one of the local dailies. ``Some cinemas have become notorious for showing indecent movies and so decent people have stopped visiting them. They are slowly triggering their own death. The revival of interest in cinema would only be possible if the owners and exhibitors revise their policy and make use of cinematic techniques as well,'' an official has been quoted as saying. ``I tried to do something different this time. I used multimedia to show World Cup matches, but only five or six people came. Only the India-Pakistan match attracted 300 customers,'' lamented the owner of Capital cinema in Peshawar in the same daily report. A few weeks ago the MMA Government in the province made a big show of burning `obscene' compact discs and videos. The operation has given licence to cadres of the MMA in the province to assume the role of `moral police' and the people in the culture industry are constantly under threat. A case involving Gulzar Alam, a singer, has sent shivers down the spine of the culture industry. The man who entertained people at a local hotel in Peshawar was hauled up by a police officer under the notorious Hudood Ordinance on charges of obscenity. Mr. Alam was released only when the Chairman of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, Afrasiab Khattak, took up the matter with the authorities after receiving a phone call from his (Mr. Alam's) family. The day after his release, Mr. Alam was scheduled to narrate his experience to the media at the Peshawar Press Club but he never showed up. Inquiries by the press revealed that he was asked to keep shut lest his son, who had suddenly gone missing, "met with an accident". The Friday Times, in its latest issue, has reported quoting sources in his family that Mr. Alam was abducted by religious zealots and warned of dire consequences if he were to go to the press. The weekly says that Mr. Alam has sworn never to sing in Pushto again. ``Frontier Province Minister for Culture Raja Faisal Zaman has denied issuing orders to raid wedding parties or other social events. However, ground realities do not bear this out. Since the Chief Minister, Akram Khan Durrani, proclaimed himself the moral guardian-in-chief, bands of young men claiming affiliation with the ruling party have wreaked havoc, tearing down billboards, harassing un-chaperoned women and threatening shopkeepers peddling music,'' the weekly said.
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