Girlfriend at last banned in Pakistan

Cable operators to ban GIRLFRIEND at last

There were big protests in India against the screening of film 'Girlfriend' that boldly takes up the subject of lesbianism. Here in Pakistan the movie is being shown without any check or censor on Cable TV for more than a week now across the country. Surprisingly not even a single protest came from any quarter. There is no mechanism to check the movies before they go on air on the video channels maintained by Cable TV operators. PEMRA has evolved no system to check what goes on air. It waits for complaints of people to take action. But in the case of film 'Girlfriend' perhaps no complaint was made as no action has been taken and the film is still going on air. President Cable TV Operators a**ociation of Pakistan Malik Furqan Ghias however on Friday while talking to The Nation Plus promised to take action in this regard and issue instructions to all cable operators to stop the screening of this film.

Of concern is the fact that many cable operators daily hold a poll about movies on the telephone and 'Girlfriend' is coming out on top or among the top five movies of the week. That means it is being screened again and again due to popular demand. These polls also show the phone numbers of voters. Summer vacations are going on and kids too are likely to watch this film which is being shown at all hours. When a local cable operator in Lahore was contacted about the film he defended the film by saying that it was just a story of friends and had no nude scenes. It is true that the film has no nude scenes but the subject of the film and dialogues are repulsive to our culture. Malik Furqan when contacted however said that it is unfortunate as such films do not conform to our culture and traditions.

'The Cable Operators a**ociation is strictly instructing all cable operators to stop screening of this film', he said.

The movie 'Fire' in 2002 was the first major foray into lesbianism by Bollywood. It has started making movies other than simple love stories. It is high time that Cable TV Operators a**ociation devise a mechanism of its own to ensure that screening of such film does not take place. It surely is difficult to make PEMRA do its job.