Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan has come to view is additional charge of culture as a licence to act as one-man vice and virtue squad. The other day, he ordered dissolution of the governing body of the Alhamra Arts Council in Lahore. In a related move, he slapped a ban on what he called "poor quality" of plays being staged at the Arts Council. "Only well-written and good" scripts, he said, would be allowed to be performed. Consequently, all plays scheduled to open after January 1, have been postponed for an indefinite period. He is doing all this despite the fact that the council already has arrangements in place for vetting scripts.
Neither reason he cited to justify his actions makes much sense. For, a "poor quality" play cannot last for long. Hence the quality should worry the relevant production company rather than the minister. More importantly, as information and culture minister, Chohan is expected to know that the adjectives good and bad, especially in the arts, are relative terms. What he deems admirable others may find boring or even detestable, and vice versa. He, however, is coming from a different angle. Although he did not explain what exactly he has set about to do in the present context, going by his earlier statements he is single-mindedly focused on purging the arts of what he considers vulgarity. Last August, he had lashed out at cinema houses for displaying billboards with pictures of "half-naked women" inside and outside the theatres, threatening cinema managements to clean up or face closure. Warming up to his theme, he had also boasted if he had his way he would make film and theatre dancers like Nargis and Meghna 'hajis' within no time. After the footage of his distasteful speech drew widespread condemnation, and Nargis (now retired from public life) voiced strong protest saying the minister should have chosen decent words about a woman who had left the showbiz industry and was leading a peaceful life abroad, he had to make an apology.
Yet as the present instance shows, occupying high public office does not change a mindset. He is intent on imposing his idea of decency on people doing theatre and films. Next, he may want to tell the painters not to depict 'improperly' clad women in their works of art since he seems to see obscenity in everything concerning women. Allowing him to enforce his narrow interpretation of obscenity surely will serve as an encouragement for likeminded groups and parties to insist on inflicting their ideas of decency and morality on this society. Once that is permitted, there will be no end to demands for more and more censorship. The ruling PTI leadership, believed to have socially liberal leanings, needs to put breaks on what is going on in Lahore - Punjab's cultural centre - and should try and create an environment conducive to the flourishing of all forms of the arts. Towards that end, it would be wise to hand the culture portfolio to someone not so obsessed with the female form, and who can appreciate the connection between the performing arts and freedom of imagination.
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