Banning Bin Laden

Our board of film censors is inherently flawed, of dubious intellect and highly erratic in its thinking. Often acting as a right wing morality police, it has in recent times been responsible for the banning of quality theatre, film and television. In a country where new ideas and fresh art have the potential to propel Pakistan forward and the potential to make us think and appreciate a world outside the confines of our four walls, the censors act as a consistent impediment.

The PPP government claims to be all for a free media and the importance of a vibrant civil society. But its actions indicate otherwise. The reason for the ban is that the film has been deemed a security risk — which makes me wonder whether moral policing has now become mixed with guarding our national interests.

We Pakistanis are always quick to criticise America (in particular people like George Bush Jr) for its cavalier attitude in making militant and provocative declarations and behaving abominably in the interest of ‘national security’ in this war on terror. The banning of a film in which a nationally-acclaimed youth icon features is manifest of this same myopic attitude. The issue should not be to ban and hence prevent people from watching the movie but rather to letting them watch and making their own decision on whether it is harmful or not. When are these censor boards and similar kind of officious and meddlesome government bodies going to understand that Pakistanis are not stupid? We can think for ourselves, with or without a classroom education. In fact, the more we are exposed to the arts, both national and international, the more likely we are to learn, imbibe and think.

Furthermore, the notion that the screening of this humorous, satirical film will damage the country's international reputation and cause an upset in the zero sum game of power with India or further destablise our already precarious security situation is untenable. This, in turn, gives rise to the question: where will the 'democratic' state draw the line? Data Sahib was bombed as was the Marriot Hotel in Islamabad for instance — are we going to ban the building of shrines and hotels too in the interests of national security? Is it not the decision of cinema owners, hoteliers, restaurant owners to decide whether their respective establishments are safe?

When I first heard of Ali Zafar’s film, the first thought was ‘I wonder if I will get to see it.’ That I had to ask myself whether the film would see the light of day in my country is sad indeed. This whole ‘will they allow it?’ debate appears almost as a normal reaction.

It makes one livid to see a talented and hard-working Pakistani professional suffer in his own country, and yet be supported and celebrated in countries that are not his. The fundamental question here is that where should the state draw the line in its interference with private matters and decisions that are best left to civil society to make?

We Pakistanis should be celebrating Ali Zafar’s movie and given the chance to go en masse to the cinema to support a Pakistani who is trying to do something worthwhile. Above all, we should be given the opportunity and the choice to decide for ourselves whether the film is good or bad. Banning a film, in fact, will make even those people want to see it who otherwise may have not wanted to in the first place.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2010.