Banning Fashion Shows

well said rafay alam! good article.

Sounds just like amchi Pune. The local Shiv Sena tries each year to stop Valentine`s Day celebrations. They are successful to a large extent as well, terrorising teenagers outside college gates and setting greeting cards on fire. But it only serves to make it more appealing I think. Its funny how these clowns spit into the wind.

On a related note, this fashion show business must be taking a leaf out of our big-dot ``information`` minister Sushmajee. Amazing how much they have in common.

Talibanization is gradually, but surely, creeping in .....

Just back in 1966, I have seen Cabarets in Karachi & there were Bars in all main hotels. There used to be Liddo, Excellceur, Taj. Foreign Bands played routinely at big hotels.

These Pakistani over-dressed Fashion Shows can hardly titillate any nerve.

nazar sahib, your post #3, raised a chuckle here. The last sentence is a gem.....

``These Pakistani over-dressed Fashion Shows can hardly titillate any nerve. ``

I am sure there are many who would vehemently disagree with your sentiments.

Rafay:

1: enjoyed your begum ripartee on the other board;)
2: this is good
3: this reminds me to brush up my fictional miss hoor pakistan piece did much before the bearded brigade appeared over the horizon and send it in for publication...thanks
4: have a good day

...t

At least the Mullahs do it out of piety. The Shiv Sena does it as a measure of extortion. Those outlets willing to donate money to Shiv Sena are saved.

This article is good. But I wish it had been written by an Indian about the badmashi taking place in India by our own version of stormtroopers. I am coming around to the view that Indians lack the capability of self criticism.

Rafay:

i hope you will forgive this intrusion...really!...

---

Dear Friends,

I hope this mail finds you in the best of health and spirits. Unfortunately, my e-mail was hacked and the password alongwith my personal profile was changed within two days of sending you the mail with the subject ``The price for being vocal in Pakistan`s democracy``. The mail also contained an attachment ``seeking your support`` which was addressed to Friends believing in principles of Democracy and Human Rights. As you must have read the attached letter, it was about my father Makhdoom Javed Hashmi`s illegal detention and my plight of knocking the Government doors in vain. The purpose of writing this letter was to seek support from members of the civil society in individual or organizational capacity:

to raise a voice against the illegal detention of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, and,
in urging the Government to respect the basic human and constitutional rights of Javed Hashmi and, to release him immediately.
Since I have just regained access to my account after a very lengthy procedure, I have come to know that the person who was misusing my account has deleted all my mails including the ones with solidarity messages and other postive feedback. I want to thank you all for your very positive, encouraging and prompt response to my mail and would like to request you to send your messages again (sent during this period) if they are still with you in your ``sent`` folders. I would be most grateful and would love to read them.

I would also like to update you on my father`s case:

Rule 90 of conducting the National Assembly business clearly empowers the National Assembly speaker to order the production of a detained member in the House, but he did not do so. By not issuing production order, the speaker has certainly set a bad parliamentary precedent, indicative of a helpless functionary, that he is. Can he be called custodian of the House anymore?
A copy of the FIR was not provided for building the line of legal defense and consequently it was not possible for the petitioner`s lawyers to argue the case. The Lahore High Court after 12 days of my father`s arrest directed the prosecution to provide the copies of the FIR and the remand report of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi to the petitioner.
A civil court granted permission to me and three counsels to meet my father in the Adiala jail but the deputy superintendent refused to obey the court orders on the pretext that the Jail superintendent is not present in his office.
After meeting my father for the first time in 18 days, I came to know that he had been subjected to severe mental and physical torture. In his own words: ``My hair was pulled. My head was repeatedly banged against brick walls. I was kept blindfolded in a pitch-dark pit for days. While wrapped around in blindfolds, I was poked with the nozzles of gun. I heard my captors around me, screaming obscenities at me, and shouting `kill him, kill him.` My blindfold was removed only to further blind me with blasts of several thousand watts of electric light, burning, round the clock, inches from above my head. For days and nights my captors kept me awake, thirsty, and hungry to break me down.``
He also received multiple injuries as he was forcefully shoved around the four walls of the room where he was kept for interrogation. In addition to all this, he is being kept in solitary confinement and as if that was not enough, despite his repeated requests he was not allowed access to medical examination. Even the family members were not allowed to hand over medicines and some other necessary items to someone who is asthamatic and has recently undergone a major surgery. All this treatment to Makhdoom Javed Hashmi certainly speaks volumes of government`s vindicative policies.
Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on November 17,2003 dismissed the habeas corpus writ petition.
On November 20, Civil Judge Rana Amar Salim rejected the petition for Makhdoom Javed Hashmi`s medical check up too.
I again request you to please take up this matter urgently at all possible levels in whatever capacity you can, and save not only the life of my father, but also the future of democracy in this country. I hope the civil society comprising of vocal advocates of human rights and democracy, would not let me down.



With hopes of solidarity,

Mamoona Hashmi.

(Member National Assembly of Pakistan)

Islamabad-Pakistan

What an irony. Yesterday I watched glittering Gladrags Mrs.India show on Sony channel. All Mrs. with bikinis and fabulous attractive evening gowns. I did not know Indian married women are that beautiful. The show was produced and sponsered by Bombay Dyeing corporation owned by ...Founding Father of Pakistan, Barrister Jinnah.

Indian:

correction....it is owned by the grandson...heri to the petit fortune...jinnah disowned her daughter and had nothing to do with her after she married of her own free will...feel should tell you this before yasser makes a federal case out of it...;)

...t

Hello Sir Alam

You have written a wonderful article (okara one was also great). First of all, I am surprised that with an economy that is marked by incessant reccessions, the booming fashion industry is being targeted. I would like for the Prime Minister to delineate the so called ``national culture`` that he seems to hold in such high regards and thinks that fashion shows are threatening it. Which culture is he referring to, the culture that renders women as second class citizens, the culture that nurtures patriarchy in its full form and essence, the culture that incessantly obstructs the rights of females, etc. Why don`t they shift their focus and concern themselvese more with issues that are promoting evils of society such as gang rape thanks to jirga system, lack of health care especially for pregnant females, illiteracy, ever-increasing poverty, etc. They banned male doctors from examining female patients in NWFP. This is not even Islam, this is our Mullahs tyirng to play Gods in the name of Islam. It is ok for women to die, but God forbid if a male comes near them to provide healthcare. There is nothing democaratic about Pakistan, each province seems to be ruled by some form of theocracy that is nothing more than a corrupt group of individuals who are abusing power in the name of religion and ethics.
They definitely won`t be successful in banning fashion shows, because Pakistan`s populace is no longer the weak souls that were once subjugated to follow absurd laws of Mr.Haque.

Thanks for the kind words so far.

A few weeks ago, someone explained just how subjective something like obscenity is. To some, I was told, obscenity was nudity. To others, it was bad furniture.

Actually, this article is a bit out of date. Since I wrote it (about three weeks ago), the grapevine has informed me that Prime Minister Jamali has quietly recalled his instructions (or government officers were instructed to disregard them, or both) after getting a bit of a lecture from President Musharraf. The new policy is to allow fashion shows, but to restrict them on religious holidays (Q: Do Christmas or Divali count) and Ramadan.

But there are other aspects to this article which remain relevant. Most importantly is the government seems to have no problem stepping in and interfering with the contracts of private parties. Now, if I buy a ticket to a fashion show, I do so with the knowledge of what I will encounter. The point is: I have bought a ticket with my eyes open and using my own money. Where does the government get off telling me I can`t go? (I recognize the caveat here that contracts against public policy are void, but let me at least illustrate the point).

Rafay Alam

Indian:

i have been advised i am wrong...Jinnah never broke off from his daughter...thanks yasser

this from his Jinnah`s Will

(10) I direct my executors to set apart Rs. 200,000/- (two lacs) or (two hundred thousands) which will at 6% bring an income of Rs. 1,000/- one thousand and pay the income thereof whatever it be to my daughter every month for her life or during her lifetime and after her death the corpus of two lacs so set apart to be divided equally between her children, males or females, in default of issue the corpus to fall into my residuary estate.

temporal ...

You are right :). Jinnah never disowned his daughter. Historians like Syed Ahmed (of 3rd grade Pakistan studies fame) invented the story to `protect the ideological frontiers`... sadly even a historian like Wolpert was taken in by Paki-propaganda. Undoubtedly as a leader of the Muslims Jinnah`s position was compromised or threatened atleast given his daughter`s marriage and that Mullahs were out on a campaign against him at the time ..they had been against him because he had opposed the JUH`s famous `NWFP Shariat bill` (the first shariat bill in this region) in the legislative assembley and then had defended Khoja practice of Hindu customary law instead of Muslim law of succession. Yet he never disowned his daughter leaving her over 200000 rupees in his will, and keeping in constant touch with her as even Akbar S ahmed affirms this in his other wise horrible book in Jinnah.


Jinnah`s will can be found in Jinnah papers... he had considerable business interests in India, as well as shares and securities.... including tattaand as per A G Noorani even in Air India... despite being a `foreign head of state` Jinnah paid his taxes for 1947/48 in advcance as a citizen of India (as he had indicated to `Jawaharlal` that he intended to return to Bombay and live in his house) ... this too as per A G Noorani`s recent article in frontline.

Jinnah`s will on Jinnah society website:

http://www.majinnah.com.pk/html_files/quaid_will.htm

A G Noorani`s article in frontline:

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2022/stories/20031107000407500.htm

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_15-11-2003_pg3_9

Fashioning bans

Sir: Our prime minister in Islamabad, Mir Zafarullah Jamali seems to have slapped a ban on fashion shows. Recently the fashion shows that have been held in our country were elegant affairs that helped put Pakistan on the map of the fashion world. Credit for this goes to the creative genius of our fashion designers. To ban them for being vulgar just doesn’t make sense. Considering that nothing in these fashion shows can compare with the vulgarity exhibited at mujrahs that are held in the palaces of our feudal elite, tribal leaders and landlords. And it is such people that make up the leadership of King’s party, or rather most mainstream parties.

There has to be some other explanation for the prime minister’s decision. Could it be that Mr Jamali is jealous of elegant models, given his own ‘healthy’ physical structure? From the elegant and nattily dressed M A Jinnah to the politicians of today who cover their shapeless kilos under the all-forgiving shalwar kameez! What a fall my countrymen.
YASSER LATIF HAMDANI
Lahore

stuka #6
##
At least the Mullahs do it out of piety. The Shiv Sena does it as a measure of extortion.
##

The Sena has always been seen as a bunch of goondas by the majority. That makes them popular in lower middle class and poor areas. But they aspire to get mindshare in a larger class base.

The Valentine`s day rubbish they try is their feeble attempt to espouse a ``cultural`` cause and thereby ride on it. Unfortunately, not many support this but they can`t withdraw because it would make them lose face.

They tried to offer help to the Asiatic Library in Mumbai as well. Their help was spurned by the management. Balasaheb knows he`s in deep $hit anyways. He is on the last leg of his life and his son is incompetent to pick up where he left off. For all their hue and cry about Congress being a monarchy, they are doing exactly the same thing. Ho hum.

Prime TV aired a Fashion show on Eid held in Royal Albert Hall in London
thats not the news.
the news is that General Pervaiz Musharaf was present in that show . He stood up and waved to the audience....
I am sure he had a good time...we all did.
let`s hope he votes against this...