Ban Tom & Jerry

Recently the Punjab government formed a committee to see whether cartoons based on Hindu mythology should be banned or not. The reasons given were that the children of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan might come under the influence of such animations and deviate from Islam.

I am not going to get into how that is clearly ridiculous or how it is not in line with Jinnah’s vision as many have already addressed those issues. However, I would add that in case the Punjab government does decide to ban these cartoons, there are a few other things on TV that it might want to take a look at.

Tom and Jerry: A cartoon show that features a cat, Tom, and a mouse, Jerry, who indulge in the most violent form of behaviour, without suffering any sort of critical injuries. Now, if the government considers children in Pakistan to be so impressionable, or the parents to be incredibly incompetent of raising their kids, I would urge them to form a committee to ban this cartoon as well.


Tom may burn into ashes, get his tail chopped up or have a huge bump on his head, but in the next scene he returns, completely healed and rejuvenated. It would be unthinkable for us to believe that this can happen in real life but for the young kids, this may prove to be a matter of grave concern. Of course, the cat and the mouse are not Hindu so I might be wrong.

Commercials: I want the Punjab government to look into some, no, all the commercials on television that show Pakistani society to be happy, satisfied and prosperous, because such visions are also a thing of myth, and as such, possibly merit banning. Bear in mind that I might be entirely wrong in suggesting these bans, but that is why we have an elected government in place; to stop such erroneous thinking from becoming law. Right?