"A letter from Pakistan"

Gamma_Dilation · June 10, 2005, 2:39pm

i want to share the following article i stumbled upon. It sheds some light on the currect culture and media in Pakistan, from the perspective of a foreigner living in Pakistan. I hope you enjoy this. God Bless.

Gamma

Letter from Pakistan
by Mridu Chandra
February 2005

A few months before Bush’s re-election, I took a job at a university in Lahore, the first “liberal arts” university in Pakistan, to teach a one-year course in film and video production. While I really should have gone to Florida and helped monitor the polling stations, I thought I could also do my part by making documentary warriors out of my students over here.

On the first day of class, we watched Fahrenheit 9/11 and one of my students asked if she were to make a documentary about General Musharraf and state-sponsored terrorism in Pakistan, what is the guarantee that she wouldn’t get shot? Talk about getting straight to the point. Human Rights Watch has listed a number of political journalists in Pakistan who have been arbitrarily detained or arrested on charges of sedition in 2004. Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, and the leader of the opposition in parliament, was also recently sentenced to twenty-three years in prison on sedition charges for releasing an anti-Musharraf letter that might have been written by someone inside the military.

The television broadcast and film industry still has to abide by censorship rules defined (though somewhat revised) in the Motion Pictures Ordinance created by General Zia’s government in the late 1970s. While the Ordinance “encourages artistic expression” on the social realities of contemporary existence such as intolerance, dishonesty, exploitation, etc., it maintains that the artist must remain responsible to society at large by not being contemptuous of national security, religion, or morality in general. Essentially this means no contempt of Pakistan (Armed Forces included), nothing that blasphemes or disrespects Islam, no “glorification of adultery, promiscuousness, lustful passion, lewdness, or excessive drinking…” And absolutely no nudity, which goes without saying.

Of course, everyone gets around this by subscribing to cable, which includes at least ten Indian channels, CNN, Fox, HBO Asia (sans Sex in the City), Arabic channels, and new Pakistani channels that crop up almost monthly. The privately owned Pakistani channels get around the censorship rules in large part by broadcasting television from Dubai or Hong Kong—but still with no nudity and no critique of Musharraf. For that, you have to go to the pirated DVD market, where everything is available: American films, Iranian cinema, Bollywood films, French flicks, everything. Even as theatres showcase the regional cinemas of Pakistan (Punjabi and Pashto films in the largest number), everyone would agree that there is a crisis in the film industry in terms of both production quality and lagging viewership.

On a more positive note, there is a rapidly growing alternative cinema with independent filmmakers shooting both documentaries and low-budget features on digital video and exhibiting through film festivals here and internationally, as well as at local cafes and generally wherever they can. Bilal Minto’s World Ka Center (The Center of the World, critiquing the importance of 9/11 around the world by portraying an utterly ordinary day in Lahore as it happened on September 11, 2001), and Hasan Zaidi’s Raat Chali Hai Jhoom Ke (simply described as After Hours set in Karachi) and have both, among others, shown in New York and in other international film festivals.

From inside the Pak Tea House, a legendary hangout for writers and poets from the 1930s to the 1970s.
My students are part of this cinema “revival,” and I’d say that they have no sense of self-censorship when they do their video assignments. Humor, anti-authoritarian critique, and “lustful passion” seems to pervade everything they do—they are all 19 and in university, after all.

As one assignment, I asked my students to film a phone call between two people, an exercise on shooting to edit with continuity in mind. One group made a pretty hilarious short film in Punjabi where a man having difficulty masturbating to dirty pictures in a bathroom calls his sex therapist for advice, who turns out to be too distracted by his own success at it to be of any help to his client. The documentaries the students have proposed for this semester cover subjects including the harassment of women in public markets, the presence of UFOs in Lahore (don’t you doubt it!), and the more terrestrial threat that plastic toymaking poses to the indigenous terracotta toymaking industry.

That still begs for a film on Musharraf, the President and the Army Chief. Since his coup in 1999, the military has penetrated every social and economic institution in Pakistan, becoming the biggest corporate industrial group around, and the loudest public voice. Moreover, the military has become the largest landowner in the country, having aggressively usurped land from farmers in the Punjab as well as raided low-income housing developments in cities to expand their own neatly organized housing colonies.

Most liberal-thinking urban Pakistanis will say they are not happy with military rule, but in general they either don’t seem to mind the General (at least he’s secular and the economy is growing), or they don’t believe that there is a culture of activism here that they can participate in publicly. Of course that is not true, as every society has people pushing at the edges to challenge the status quo and every society has groups vying for political power. Here there is the people rights movement, there are the religious parties who want Islamic rule, and there are many people in this area who cannot stand another day of Musharraf’s Bush-sponsored hunt for Osama.

I’m new in this country, but these are the topics I’m learning about in my effort to understand Pakistan. And what I can say about Musharraf right now is that I appreciate how straightforward he is about power. It’s so much easier to fight when you know what is going on. We spend so much energy in the U.S. deconstructing the truth about power and then trying to prove again and again that we’re not expounding conspiracy theories. In the meantime Bush continues to rule our country much like Musharraf does, all the while proclaiming to be the leader of the free world.

Mridu Chandra is a temporarily displaced Brooklynite living in Lahore.

SOURCE: http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/express/feb05/pakistan.html

larki · June 10, 2005, 2:46pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

interesting.

Madhanee · June 10, 2005, 2:46pm

Re: “A letter from Pakistan”

thank you Gamma!

Gamma_Dilation · June 10, 2005, 2:48pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

Madhanee, i knew you would specially enjoy the article as it paints a progressive picture for Lahore. Am i right or not :). God Bless.

Gamma

PyariCgudia · June 10, 2005, 2:50pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

I dont agree with his stance on Musharraf. Of course the guy will say negative things about Mush - he is definitely not muslim, by the sound of his name.

What I'm glad about the most, and what deserves the most attention here is that there is a class somewhere in Lahore where someone is actually TEACHING students on how to make good films.

Now that's applaudable.

larki · June 10, 2005, 2:52pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

^haha couldn't agree with you more :D

Madhanee · June 10, 2005, 2:56pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

PCG, whether one teaches at a campus, or the movement is kept underground, it is the idea of being able to produce. (they are showing indi documentaries made in Lahore in international film festivals, including here in NY). And what the hell is GOOD films?

Roman · June 10, 2005, 2:56pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

I've high hopes for generation x of Pakistan. I hang out quite a bit with my cousins and their friends of that age when I go back to Pakistan. They seem to have lot more confidence and creativity than we could ever imagine during our times. A lot of it has to do with media exposure and easy access to information and knowledge. Cable channels and internet was the best thing happened to the suffocated society of Pakistan.

Gamma_Dilation · June 10, 2005, 3:02pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

I couldnt agree with you more Roman. I see my friends back home and they have a thirst for acquiring new skills, especially in programming field. They know that an IT venture or skills in the computer field might be their trump card to economical success. God Bless.

Gamma

kaka_in_usa · June 10, 2005, 3:44pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

Mridu chandra. eh.
yet another indian in lahore.

queer · June 10, 2005, 3:55pm

Re: “A letter from Pakistan”

mridu chandra is not a guy, she’s a pretty lady, and she’s big in the indi scene in the US producing and sometimes directing movies.

Gamma_Dilation · June 10, 2005, 3:58pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

^ miss mirdu!. Thats very fetching. i am tempted to say something like "GRRrRRRrrrrr MMmmMMM woof woof" but i shall refrain from being a jerk. God Bless.

Gamma

KAKA-ATOM-BUM · June 10, 2005, 4:13pm

Re: “A letter from Pakistan”

oh enough of the Gob Bless -Gamma crap! its annoying, be normal! dont act all grown up n sober. No one wants a nice decent gammma.

Miss_Mohabbat · June 10, 2005, 4:14pm

Re: “A letter from Pakistan”

leave him be kaka…i like it, keep it up gamma. :k:

God bless.

Roman · June 10, 2005, 4:23pm

Re: “A letter from Pakistan”

Oh man! meiN iss lady kay charnoN meiN baqi zindigi guzarna chahta hooN.

Gamma_Dilation · June 10, 2005, 4:23pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

Miss_mohabbat, you indeed are one of my favorite maidens. God Bless.

Gamma

ghuLail · June 10, 2005, 4:54pm

Re: “A letter from Pakistan”

whats with indians and thier fascination with our military esp mushy…the only way they can step thier foot in pakistan is in the name of ‘art’…aur chali hai art kai naam pai state-sponsored terrorism pai bolnai…sb really needs to show them thier place…

queer · June 10, 2005, 4:58pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

ghulail aunty, she isnt indian. lussi wassi piyo, ek do pathar maaro, chillax..

ghuLail · June 10, 2005, 5:00pm

Re: "A letter from Pakistan"

aray nahin!..sri lankan ho gi phir...aai haai...phir toa bolnai ka bhi nahin tha....

metromomma · June 10, 2005, 5:23pm

Re: “A letter from Pakistan”

lol, the mystery deepens, she’s pakistani
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050323/asp/calcutta/story_4521174.asp