Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan’s cinema still on the course of reviving the film industry, the government should allow the screening of movies which are revolving around social issues, by leaving aside their personal interests.

The famous writer and producer Asher Azim made an exceptional film titled Maalik which is highlighting the true face of Pakistan’s society but the film could not fulfil the requirement of political bigwigs so it went off screen despite the fact it that it was shown in cinema houses for 17 days.

On one hand, the federal government objected on the content of the movie, while on the other hand the members of the civil society also objected that the movie had shown a celebrated and heroic death of a former Afghan mujahid. They termed it against the spirit of the National Action Plan (NAP).

Interestingly, the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) received 24 controversial complaints about Maalik. One of those was made by a member of the National Assembly in which he pointed out that the movie was against Pakistani cultural values and norms and did not depict the real face of the country. So he demanded that it should be banned immediately.

When the Daily Times verified the complaints, it was found that some were filed by the same CNICs but with different genders. More interestingly, some of the complaints were filed before the release of the film. Most of the complainants neither watched the movie nor did they know about their written complaints and more than 13 complaints lacked the necessary data.

After the release of the movie, a public poll was conducted by an English newspaper regarding the screening of Maalik, where over 80 per cent internet users voted against the ban.

When this scribe contacted the Chairman Central Board of Film Censors, Mubashar Hasan, for his comments, he said “five members of the board inspected the movie and did not find any objectionable content so they gave the certificate for screening. However, when this movie was screened in theatres, a lot of public complaints were received. As a result of the complaints they banned the movie from further screening.

The film’s producer Asher Azeem told this reporter that most of the people loved the movie. He also said that he could not find any reason why the government banned the movie. Upon receiving complaints from the Sindh Board of Film Censors (SBFC), the filmmaker’s team omitted the film ‘s controversial contents.

It is worth mentioning here that in 2014 Pakistani Urdu-language film The System directed by Norway-based Shahzad Ghafoor and produced by Ghafoor Butt of Leos Productions (Norway), also exposed the corruption of the police and the feudal lords of Pakistan. The movie also targeted government servants and showed a lot of violence and bloodshed, but no action was taken by the federal government and the censor board and the movie was not banned.