Of festivals and security protocols

Media coverage of the Lahore Literary festival was extensive

The Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), in all its glory, concluded recently leaving behind nothing but good memories. The three-day event is one of the most important festivals of Lahore, bringing together bigwigs, mainly from the corridors of arts, history, entertainment and the media. Media coverage was extensive.

Some highly unsavoury incidents that could have ruined the festival went uncovered though. The Alhamra Arts Council is an important venue, where the Lahore Police has in the past made security arrangements for various events. Making security arrangements for an event like the LLF, therefore, should not have given the police a hard time. After the organisers had made all the arrangements for the festival, with speakers having been invited from different countries, the LLF was nearly cancelled amid fears of a terrorist attack. The decision to cancel the event was conveyed to the Alhamra Arts Council from the Punjab chief minister’s office a day before the event was supposed to start. A warning had been generated by the security agencies, which had got the provincial government worried.

What was unfortunate was that instead of perhaps, increasing the security at the venue, the immediate reaction was to cancel it all together. The LLF organisers, thankfully, managed to pull some strings in the nick of the time to save the festival. Subsequently, towards the end of the day, the police was ordered to maintain strict security around the venue. Three SPs, along with dozens of officers and hundreds of constables, were deputed at the event to maintain multilayered security parameters. Visitors had to park their vehicles at least a kilometre away at Bagh-e-Jinnah. A parking lot just outside Alhamra Arts Council was made a no-parking zone to ensure safety. A wedding event at a ground adjacent to the venue was forcibly cancelled. Security threats had made the organisers so paranoid that a student from a well-reputed college was not allowed to enter the premises just because he hailed from Waziristan.

On the last day of the festival, visitors saw canopies being set up at the ground adjacent to the Alhamra Arts Council for a wedding event. There was no police contingent stationed between the festival venue and the ground to ensure security. While multilayered security arrangements had been placed elsewhere at the venue and citizens were being forced to walk for over a kilometre to reach the festival, with even important personalities having to pass through multiple security checks, allowing this wedding function to go ahead right next to the LLF seemed inexplicable. It all started making sense when we were told that the wedding was of a relative of a PML-N MPA. One wonders when our country will be rid of security threats and the shenanigans of those who rule us.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2015.