Nazarband: Confine someone as a prisoner, especially for political or military reasons.
Banned: The subtle, political abandonment of democracy under the pretence of concern for the public.
Nazarbanned: Confine minds under an illusionary democracy for political or military reasons, and call it a concern for younger generations so you don’t betray your constitution.
The constitution of Pakistan says that we, as your government, allow “reasonable restrictions in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan or public order or morality” when it comes to freedom of speech and expression.
It has been long since we have seen a ban being imposed that fits this description. We keep experiencing censorship in a place that is supposedly democratic. It has reached a point where we have strayed far away from this clause that uses vague and abstract concepts such as ‘reasonable’, and ‘integrity of Pakistan’.
Where censorship is introduced
Democracy does not discriminate, that is the beauty of it. The most uneducated yet opinionated man gets to call things stupid and that is his constitutional right. But we, as a nation, have reached a point in democracy where there rises a problem. The man and his uneducated opinion remains uncensored. But the very thing he had a problem with becomes a victim of censorship.
We say democracy does not discriminate, except it does.
It does because, in a country riddled with crimes against morality and a colossal lack of public order, the very law of censorship is discriminated against. Treated differently on the basis of our faltering ethics. It is not given justice. Because if it were, then the entirety of our country would be censored. We’d be walking muted mics.
What exactly is the problem?
The problem in question, if it flew over your head amidst the rage, is our country’s ludicrous habit of censoring things that need not be censored. And then letting the blatant garbage go unchecked. It’s like taking away the filter from a cigarette and leaving a child with the tobacco. “Cigarettes are dirty things, and filters are a huge part of them. Therefore, we need to take the filters away.”
Your child is eating the tobacco raw, PEMRA.
Recently, we have seen all forms of media being attacked via ban. Such as Zindagi Tamasha, Churails, TikTok, Gala biscuit. A movie, a TV show, an app, a music video. And I think what we as viewers need to distinguish between, is the unacceptable and the unlikeable.
Media comes hand in hand with representation. And the most amusing thing about our country is that wrong is only pronounced wrong when it is shown on TV screens. We are a culture of shame and secrets, hidden behind a self-righteousness veil that only lets through what destroys the mind and keeps the culture intact. And it seems that we need a change of culture, instead of censorship.
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