PESHAWAR: The management of a cinema owned by the Pakistan Air Force on Tuesday refused to close the cinema during Ramazan on the directives of the provincial government. The NWFP government on Monday circulated a notification among all the cinemas in the province asking them to close in Ramazan. Naeem Khan, manager of the PAF cinema, told Daily Times that he received the government notification on Monday evening. “I did not sign the letter issued by the Department of Religious Affairs and refused to close the cinema,” Khan said. “I told the police to take up the case with PAF officials as we accept orders from the PAF and not the provincial government.” Khan said the police visited the cinema three times to close it “but we refused”. Wilayat Khan, manager of Tasweer Mahal Cinema, Ejaz Khan, manager of Novelty Cinema, and Mumtaz Khan, manager of Picture House Cinema, said they closed their cinemas after they were served government notices through police station house officers. In the notification, Minister for Religious Affairs Imanullah Haqani told cinema owners that they must close their cinema houses in respect of the holy month of Ramazan, the managers said. “The SHOs had us sign the letter and warned us to close the cinema otherwise the police will not be responsible for any attacks on the cinemas,” they said.
“The police forced us to close the cinema,” Rohullah, an employee of Sabrina Cinema, told Daily Times. He said the owners had closed their cinemas for fear of attacks by religious activists and clerics.
The Amar Bil Maroof Wanahi Anil-Munkar organisation created by Dr Zakir Shah and local clerics has banned music and video shops and cable operators in four colonies in the city: Yousaf, Anis, Ittihad and Muslim colonies. “There is a complete ban on music and video centres, video games arcades and cable operators for the past 15 years,” said Maulana Saddique, an imam and an active member of the organisation. “These are the main sources of obscenity and vulgarity and should be banned from society,” Saddique said. The whole of Peshawar would soon be free of cable, music and video centres and cinema houses as the organisation is expanding its operations to cover the entire city, he said. “It is not Talibanisation. It is done solely to live according to the Shariah and provide a peaceful and Islamic society to our youth,” Saddique said.
The youths of these colonies said they were not in favour of these restrictions but were forced to comply with the organisation’s orders. “We wish we had cable connections, music and video centres but it is impossible since for the past 15 years no one including the government has been able to oppose the organisation,” Arif, a young resident of Peshawar, said.