Can someone please explain the reason for these stupid laws in pak. this is pathetic! are these laws really followed by peeps gettin married bak home? or is it jus like normal paki policy to act like you dont know what the law is?
**Serving of wedding meals in capital
The law covers all marriage ceremonies including ānikahā, ārukhsatiā, āwalimaā, ārasm-e-hinaā and other functions and celebrations connected with marriage and related festivities.
Section 4 of the law says that no person celebrating his or the marriage of any other person shall serve or allow anyone to serve meals or other edibles to persons participating in the marriage in a club, hotel, restaurant, wedding hall, community centre or any other place except hot and cold soft drinks.
Section 5 of the law also bounds the management of hotels, wedding halls, etc. to ensure that no meal is served to the participants of the marriage other than hot and cold soft drinks.
Section 3 of the law also bans the decoration of houses, buildings, explosion of crackers and firework display.
Section 6 provides one-month prison or fine from Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 500,000 or both for the violator of section 3, 4 or 5. The law bars police from taking cognisance of the offence. It says that the court could take cognisance of the offence on a complaint in writing by an officer or agency as notified by the federal and provincial governments to check the violations under the law.
The point of that law is that people will waste food. I had a similar reaction in Pakistan but after attending 3 different weddings, I realized that itās a very good idea. Hereās the thread:
Its been around for a while now. Excessive spending on wedding banquets by people to show-off their wealth had created an unfortunate environment for those who can not afford them and were sucked into this show-off culture. With government clamping down on this menace, people have a legitimate excuse for simplifying the wedding arrangements to more reasonable level. It all boils down to effective enforcement, though. We don't want our police to use this law to harass poor people even further, by fining them for putting a few light bulbs at their homes.
Though, the law does have some unfortunate side-effects. Number one, it stops people from taking care of their guests the way they want, which impinges upon their fundamental human rights as well as goes against Islamic teachings. Number two, by disallowing people to serve food openly, it forces people to either commit a crime by serving food using alternative methods (booking two halls etc) as well as increasing the costs of serving food. Number three, it has taken the fun out of weddings, as people used to go to weddings to enjoy food, and enjoying food - especially free food - is our national past time, in case you don't know. Lastly it is a logistical nightmare to have a wedding reception with only hot-cold drinks and then to get proper cooked food delivered to the home of the in-laws or get it served in your own home, because obviously people are not going to go home hungry, at least the close relatives.
Anyway, in my personal opinion, the public benefits of the law that can potentially help millions of people who really need help, far outweigh the inconveniences caused to a fewer number of people who are irritated or inconvenienced.
Well in this case I think you have to look at it this way: go against Islam in regards to how guests r treated? Or collectively attempting to impose a more Islamic society and values in that food isnāt wasted and the poor arenāt forced to dig themselves into further poverty?
Also I donāt know if free food is really taht fun; in my experience the food was never delicious, and it was always served much much much much later. I swear, Iām making my mom cook at my wedding
In good olā days, I have attended a fair number of weddings with really fabulous and elaborate food. Now, with no food being served, a lot of people are actually disinclined to even attend weddings, especially if its just an aquintance, which is unfortunate because weddings are an ideal opportunity to reconnect with old friends etc.
Anyway, that is neither here nor there. The law is the law, and should be followed. More importantly, it should be diligently enforced. The comment by the official that they are waiting for a high-profile case to make an impact, while true and amusing, is really a bit disheartening. They should treat every violation of the law seriously, regardless of who is doing it. Thats the essence of level playing field.
Food or no food, you simply can not have a wedding without the decorations! The flowers and lights are the only things which create the wedding atmosphere around the house. I mean why impose plight of the poor on the whole nation? Those who want to spend will spend it on useless things anway. As for the show off culture, its there in their roots. Have you ever seen the way food is served on janaze and rest of the 40 days? Its far more grand than what you have on weddings.
oh well it doesnt really matter, nobody follows the law anyway! there are hundreds of webpages about how politicians and actors in pak are throwing big time weddings and completly ignoring the laws.
half the paki hotels in islamabad/pindi are advertising their wedding halls and food on the net.
Yea I asked my mom about this once and she said it was because some of the poorer families wouldnāt be able to provide food or something and they should be focused and coming to the wedding not for the food but to bestow their blessings upon those that are to be wed lol
What we need to ban is Jahez (dowry from the brides side) and silly useless customs like engagement parties, Rasm-e-Henna/Mehndi, Ubtan night, Dholki nights etc.
Weddings should be a two day affair only, first day Nikaah hosted by the brides family and second day Waleemah by the grooms side, there needs to be a limit on how many meal options they're allowed to offer and all meals should only be three course at most, cut out the silly things like sorbets and stuff.
^No, I hope that doesnāt happen. I really admire the one-month weddings in our culture.
& as for the law, itās enforced pretty strictly but people still find ways around it. I know a neighbor who had Rs. 200,000 ready for every wedding and served full dinner while paying the fine on all of their 3 daughterās shadiyaan. Talk about fazool kharchiyaan.
also people serve food in their house before taking baratis etc to the hall and present as they are just having a party. Thatās also giving way to formal wedding receptions in Pakistan.
One month is annoying though, the women enjoy them but I donāt, headache..
Okay so Iāll allow three days then Mangni/Engagement just for the two families, their close relatives and friends and for the couple to actually see each other and talk, itās sooo annoying when in some families a couple donāt even get to see each other till itās too late.
There needs to be another law where Indian customs should be made illegal, I hate it when women wear saari, boys wear saffron ādupattasā at the Mehndi, and those yellow v. pink turbans by each sideā¦ When I get married Iām just going to wear a nice Paki Muslim looking sherwani and my wifey is going to wear a gold (as opposed to red) Shalwar Kameez and there will be no Bollywood or Sikh bhangra tunes, that is like soooo freshy, Iāll hire professional Paki dancers or maybe a Paki DJ or something.
I agree with chel babu about the Hindu customs going a bit too far within the Pakistani Community. Why is that then? Is it coz its more fun with those customs in our marriages or what?
I have been to quite a few Pakistani weddings in London and In Pakistan where they go over the top with the hindu customs and rasams or wotever u call it. Its pathetic!
Exactly bro, weāre not Hindus itās not our religion so why do all these gay unneccesary customs? Hindu customs are baddshagooni for the couple anyway.
We should be more original.
Going at this rate Pakis will be doing aarti, mangalsutra and sindhoor too.
Actually in India Muslim women already wear bindi, sindhoor and mangalsutar. Even in Pakistan at weddings a ālow casteā (another Hindu concept weāve retained) woman usually comes round of her own accord with some sindhoor and puts it in every married womans hair parting expecting money in return as a payment, this happened at a relatives wedding and my mother just went and shampood it out, my grandamother started telling her off to which she said āweāre not khatriās for God sakeā.
I donāt know why Pakis want to be like dirty greasy Indians, Pakis watch Indian movies which glamorizes Hindu culture so they fall for it, Hindu culture is not all that rosy itās made out to be.
I canāt stand Indian culture, fcuking pendulum headsā¦
there is our problem.. we watch too many indian movies.. but tell me why doesnāt the hollywood movies have the same effect on us? why donāt we start our wedding ceremonies how christians do?
I dontā watch indian movies at all.. the reason is simple i dontā have 3 damn hours of my life to waste on movie! but i do want to watch some constructive Islamic program, whether it is some lecture or documentary or just simply talawat of Quran. Pakistanis have lost their way.. more and more we have mixed culture and religion and its at a stage that our generation is refusing to accept it.
I totally agree that marriage should be as simple as possible but by simple i dontā mean donāt wear nice cloths, donāt smile, dontā treat your guests properly.. but by simple all i mean is to do as much Allah as given you. Make sure your family is happy and then worry about others..
we do a lot of things in life coz of peer pressure and our parents are in the same boat.. they want ppl to say good stuff about their son/daugtherās wedding..
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there is our problem.. we watch too many indian movies.. but tell me why doesn't the hollywood movies have the same effect on us? why don't we start our wedding ceremonies how christians do?
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Because back home we've lived side by side with Khatri people for so long we adopted their ways, with a lot of us all or some of our ancestors were Hindu so we just carried on those Hindu rituals, and there's linguistic similarities so Indian media has more effect on us than the completely alien American media.
Now it's time for change, leave superstitious crap from the Hindu religion in it's entirety, I'm not saying we should become Arab because even they were Mushrik once, we should hang onto the secular parts of our own culture but anything associated with the Hindu religion should be left out.
lol
One month is annoying though, the women enjoy them but I donāt, headache..
Mangni/Engagement just for the two families, their close relatives and friends and for the couple to actually see each other and talk, itās sooo annoying when in some families a couple donāt even get to see each other till itās too late.