Daily Times

In the wee hours of Sunday, July 2th the Assistant Commissioner in Islamabad raided a hotel along with the police and arrested over fifty young men and women who were found dancing. In addition to the unverifiable charges of violating the Amplifier Act and the Tobacco Act, the people were also charged with ‘obscene acts and songs’.

Although all those arrested were released on bail within hours, this was a highly ridiculous raid because the event was happening on the property of a hotel which was not located in a residential area and did not cause any public nuisance.

This is not an isolated act in Pakistan’s history. Last Eid, the district administration in Bannu KP did not give permission to hold a traditional circus and fair because it would have infuriated the TTP and its sympathisers.

How many opportunities does Pakistan’s rural population have of enjoying plays and festivals? And areas like Bannu, which borders FATA and has been affected by the TTP insurgency, desperately need occasional psychosocial respites in the form of fairs and circuses.

Last May, in Lahore’s Sozo Water Park, the district administration ordered organisers to pack up and leave the venue immediately, despite the fact that they had the NOC from the Deputy Commissioner. The event was raided by police after a local sectarian cleric threatened the police to stop that ‘sinful’ dance or his workers would interfere.

The actions of the administrations in Islamabad, Bannu and Lahore mirror what the state of Pakistan has become over the last four decades — a sadist creature. While the state continues to remain impotent against terrorists who wreak havoc in the country, it behaves like a wet blanket when it comes to individual liberties and the right to be happy.

With no international popular sports, virtually no arts and literary festivals, a useless film industry and very few music concerts held in the country, only a small minority can find enough conviction and financial space to enjoy in private.

If this too is intolerable to our administration, then the state has surely become nothing but a sadist beast which curbs the enjoyment of the people.

While the state continues to remain impotent against terrorists who wreak havoc in the country, it behaves like a wet blanket when it comes to individual liberties and the right to be happy

Many find it hard to believe that the Pakistani state and society were actually open and tolerant in the quarter of a century after Pakistan’s independence. There were only a few religious seminaries, vocal leftist politicians were still part of parliament, the film industry flourished, and weekends were unimaginable without going to the cinema or tonight clubs. Alcohol was available to those who could afford it.

It was not until 1974 that military messes stopped serving alcohol. Bhutto banned alcohol along with bars in 1977 in order to appease religious parties who were protesting the rigged elections.

Following Bhutto’s ouster in a military coup by General Zia, things only took a turn for the worse as Zia decimated individual and civil liberties. For instance, the holy month of Ramazan was always observed with religious fervour and with respect; those who did not or could not fast were still able to eat during the fast.

Zia changed all of this, making it legally punishable if someone ate in public during the fast. There were other absurdities too, which only added austere religiosity to Pakistani society without adding any real character.

I recall how we were given small logbooks in school under the Nizam-e-Salat (Prayer Regime), and were asked to record our daily prayers and get them signed from the Imam. Those logbooks made us all liars.

Poetry, singing, dance, organised festivals, cultural avenues of debate and discourse, and other forms of fine arts are the collective heritage of human civilisation. You remove these from human societies and they will be reduced to dumb beasts that only possess basic animal instincts of eating, fighting, killing, and procreating. Have we as a society not drifted towards this deplorable and inhuman state?

In Pakistan, for a large majority, beside our love for hatred and radical jingoism, pastimes have been reduced to no more than food and sex. This is not called living. It is, at best, simply existing or surviving. We cannot grow and prosper with this attitude towards life.

The writer is a sociologist with interest in history and politics. He’s accessible at twitter @ZulfiRao1

Published in Daily Times, July 13^th , 2017.