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The real reason Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha is banned in Pakistan

Published

1 month ago

August 28, 2023

Watch Zindagi Tamasha for its beautiful and enchanting scroll, watch it to humanise the damned, watch it for its heart-breaking humanity, but most importantly, watch it because a Pakistani has made some damn good art.

The difference between good art and bad art is that good art is subtle. Pakistan struggles to do subtle. There is certainly your everyday slapstick comedy, the tragic heroine, and the flippantly violent hero. But no, Pakistan is not at all good at subtle, which is why Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha is banned.

To put it succinctly, this film is about how a non-minority becomes a minority. The protagonist is a religious devout, who gets an instant rogue status for the crime of loving to dance effeminately. Had our hero danced unnoticed, he would have survived, but he gets caught [on camera] by the ridicule-addicted world of viral social media take downs and cancel-culture. Zindagi Tamasha is old world meets new, but it’s also the worst of both worlds.

We are a country that prefers staying within social constructs. A daughter must be dutiful towards a father. The respectable must not have whims. The wives must be able-bodied. The community must have only men and women. This is the only script that the gatekeepers of morality will accept — the grossly hypocritical. The utterly unrealistic. The fashionable lie. The rest is punishable.

Art that aligns completely with power is called propaganda. Zindagi Tamasha completely aligns with the circus of life.

The film, now finally released but on YouTube, has vindicated the idea that Pakistan is not just a fertile haven for bad art, it will do anything for good art to become commercially unsuccessful. Here, the creative process is marred by the fear of rejection, which is why we are inspired by the few artists who overcome their artistic terror and still show up in the arena.

Yet, as things stand now, the fear of the film board’s license refusal is bigger than your audience throwing rotten tomatoes at you. To be an artist in this country, first, you silence your inner critic and create art, then you face the likelihood of being silenced in the cinemas, despite creating art. It is no wonder then that artists either move abroad or move on to pamphleteering.

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Shakespeare and Mirza Ghalib said it before Sarmad Khoosat did — “All the world’s a stage and the men and women merely actors” and “Bazeesha-e-Afal hai dunya mere agay [The world is just a sport of children and nothing more to me]”.

Yet, no one said it as dramatically as the Punjabi theatrics, Punjabi nuances and Punjabi lyricism that Khoosat directed in Zindagi Tamasha. He said it in the film because the characters are impulsive and brutish, and then he said it again at the introduction of the YouTube release.

In both film and publishing, the fact remains that whimsical people do whimsical things, on the set and off the set, script or no script. What the former does particularly well is that it brings to life the loud, uncanny, and in-your-face discrepancies between what we believe in and what we want others to believe about us. The dialogue, short and snappy, the characters believable and cherished, and the cinematography, seared in the museums we collect in our minds.

This is an award-worthy movie. A movie that should go out in the world, even at the risk of rotten tomatoes.

Anyone can make a film about humans not following the scripts of life and ending up in disaster, but it is Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha that makes it about a compliant gentleman, who still manages to fail colossally. How?!

This hero of ours — an old, frail-hearted man who follows the moral, political, social, and familial script to the tee — somehow still manages to get into the crosshairs of the power brokers. How does he manage to anger all at once the clergy, the political dynamic, the social fabric, the family system, and his fans? Here is our hero, clergy as clergy can be, a devotee, and a man who finds only ways to praise the Lord. How can his cute and harmless knack for fun become so exploitable?

Juxtaposition is dangerous, supposedly.

All mess occurs in clusters, so we have the meme-infested youth, who hardly understand how consent works or even how responsibility works for that matter. Then there are your usual people, who drop you the instant they feel your behaviour doesn’t check out with the proverbial state-sanctioned understanding of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Or whatever the theme of the decade is.

These people will stop accepting your food, stop inviting you to their kids’ weddings, and stop by your house to yell insults. The Jones’s need not be kept up with because the Jones’s hate you, they admonish you, they take your social equity out of your range, and they may even hurl you off a cliff if they can.

In Pakistan, it is easier to accuse those you hate of something that is unpardonable instead. Something that can get you mob-lynched instead. So it goes that our hero, an old compliant man who even washes clothes at home, did a small unconventional thing [in this case, danced effeminately] and ended up with a big bad death at his doorstep. If Zindagi Tamasha leaves you with one thing, let it be that you can die if you are not liked.

We may have become a nuclear state, built the orange bus networks, evaded a default, and forged meaningful human rights treaties, but we haven’t found a way to allow people to be individuals. We want them to be collective state-sponsored ambassadors, even in their own company, even in living rooms, even in their heads.

The rest of the world has mostly given up on this way of governance. They manufacture ideas and tech and keep crime low. We instead are still keen to ensure everyone behaves. We fear that freedom will erase us, whereas it is clear now that it is containment that threatens to eradicate us.

It is also clear that when the respectable ones are put out to dry by power, it is the dispossessed, the outcasts and those who don’t fit into gender binaries who come to give a helping hand, attend funerals, dance at their kids’ weddings, and help them belong again.

Watch Zindagi Tamasha for its beautiful and enchanting scroll, watch it to humanise the damned, watch it for its heart-breaking humanity, but most importantly, watch it because a Pakistani has made some damn good art.

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News

Rogue doctor’s arrest a ‘test case’ for law enforcement

Published

2 hours ago

October 3, 2023

callumbryne

• Originally a plastic surgeon at LGH, Mumtaz conducted illegal operations in private residences
• Officials say surgeries have claimed lives of several patients including foreign nationals

LAHORE: Notorious illegal kidney transplant surgeon Fawad Mumtaz, who was re-arrested a couple of days ago by Lahore police after he escaped from custody, has become a ‘test case’ for the criminal justice system and the law enforcement agencies, especially for the Punjab police.

Mumtaz has been booked and arrested several times by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Punjab police, but each time, he has managed to obtain bail and continued his illegal transplant racket.

According to his criminal record, Mumtaz has been running the largest-ever illegal kidney transplant racket across the country, especially in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir since 2009.

An official said that Mumtaz was originally a plastic surgeon at the state-run Lahore General Hospital. He was serving as an assistant professor when he was first suspended from service for conducting illegal transplant procedures.

The rogue surgeon has reportedly become a billionaire, exploiting rich clients and charging exorbitant amounts from clients — especially those from Gulf countries — to perform illegal transplant operations.

According to FIA and police investigations, Mumtaz would charge Rs10 million to Rs15 million from foreign clients/patients for each illegal kidney transplant and used to pay Rs100,000 to Rs150,000 to local donors, who his gang members would trap with the promise of employment or other lures.

The rogue surgeon would conduct the illegal transplant procedures in rented houses in private housing societies in cities across the province, it has emerged.

A few days ago, Lahore police picked him up from Taxila in connection with a case registered against him at Garden Town police station.

But shockingly, Mumtaz managed to flee from police custody, and the official explanation provided was that four of his armed accomplices attacked the police team and managed to free him.

The incident prompted caretaker Punjab chief minister Mohsin Naqvi to hold a press conference.

He told journalists on Sunday that Mumtaz has been re-arrested by Lahore police and action has been proposed against police officers who had taken him into custody before he managed to escape.

Lahore DIG Investigation Imran Kishwar told Dawn the accused was on physical remand and police were interrogating him. He said the officials responsible for his escape had been suspended from service and a departmental inquiry has been launched to punish them accordingly.

An official told Dawn that Mumtaz had a notorious criminal record spanning over a decade.

Currently, several cases are lodged against him in Lahore, Multan, Okara, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Taxila and Rawalpindi.

The last case against him was registered in Taxila, where a joint team of the Punjab Human Organ Transplant Authority and local police arrested six suspects, including doctors and paramedics, during a raid in March.

Talking about illegal renal transplant procedures, the official said that Mumtaz had performed a kidney transplant on the daughter of famous comedian Umar Sharif in Azad Jammu and Kashmir in February 2020.

During the procedure, she developed serious complications and was brought to hospital in Lahore, where she breathed her last, the official said, adding that Mumtaz received Rs3.5 million from the family to perform the illegal transplant in AJK because there were no laws to prevent illegal human organ transplants in that territory.

FIA teams had also failed to arrest Mumtaz during an earlier raid on his residence in Lahore, and consequently, the rogue surgeon had managed to go into hiding. He was arrested by FIA in April 2017, when he had carried out illegal transplant procedures on Jordanian, Libyan and Omani nationals at EME Society in Lahore for Rs6m each.

Later, FIA revealed that a Jordanian national had died during the illegal procedure.

The deceased woman’s death certificate was faked by one of Mumtaz’s accomplices, Dr Altamash Kharal, and the body was kept in another private hospital in Defence before being sent back to Jordan. At the time, FIA had recommended action against Mumtaz and his accomplices.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2023

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News

Naila Kiani, Sirbaz Khan become first Pakistani duo to summit world’s 6th highest peak Cho Oyu

Published

3 hours ago

October 3, 2023

callumbryne

Mountaineers Naila Kiani and Sirbaz Khan became the first Pakistani duo to summit the 8,201-metre-tall Cho Oyu — the world’s sixth-highest peak in China’s Tibet — on Monday.

The mountain is located on the Nepal-Tibet border 20 kilometres west of Mount Everest in the Mahalangur range. Cho Oyu means “Turquoise Goddess” in Tibetan.

The duo reached the summit earlier today at 12:30pm (Nepal Time) as part of the expedition led by Imagine Nepal. Khan made the climb without using any supplementary oxygen.

They successfully reached the summit just five days after crossing the Tibet border from Nepal.

Kiani became the first Pakistani woman climber to summit 10 peaks above 8,000m and the only Pakistani to ascend seven peaks above 8,000m in six months.

Meanwhile, Khan became the only Pakistani to summit 13 peaks above 8,000m with today’s success and the only one to conquer 10 mountains above 8,000m without the use of supplementary oxygen.

Last month, the two had also successfully completed the ascent of the world’s eighth-highest peak, 8,163m-tall Mt Manaslu, in Nepal. Subsequently, the duo had arrived in China with the aim of conquering both Cho Oyu and Shishapangma.

Kiani has already scaled Broad Peak (8,047m), Annapurna (8,091m), K2 (8,611m), Lhotse (8,516m), Gasherbrum I (8,068m), Gasherbrum II (8,035m), Nanga Parbat (8,125m) and Mount Everest (8,849m).

Saad Munawar, Khan’s expedition manager, told Dawn.com that Khan was on a mission to complete the challenging goal of conquering all 14 peaks above 8,000m.

“Hailing from the Hunza district of Gilgit-Baltistan, Sirbaz continues to make his homeland proud with his extraordinary mountaineering achievements,” he said.

Munawar also commended Kiani’s determination, emphasising that her ascent of the peak occurred under “extraordinarily challenging conditions” marked by poor visibility and adverse weather.

“The marathon climb, spanning over 28 hours, stands as a testament to her exceptional strength and mountaineering prowess,” he said.

Alpine Club of Pakistan Secretary Karrar Haidri felicitated Kiani and Khan for their triumphant ascent of Cho Oyu.

“We hold our collective hopes and prayers for their safe return from this extraordinary adventure. Their dedication to mountaineering is truly commendable, and their achievements serve as a wellspring of inspiration for all,” he remarked while talking to Dawn.com.

Separately, young Pakistani climber Shehroze Kashif reached the base camp of Cho Oyu and will commence his endeavour to ascend the peak from Tuesday (tomorrow).

The summit will mark his 13th conquest of an 8,000m peak.

He also scaled Manaslu last month.

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News

Circular debt grows despite tariff hikes

Published

5 hours ago

October 3, 2023

callumbryne

ISLAMABAD: Power sector circular debt continues to grow despite all the repeated tariff increases on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis as the government takes a strategic move towards billing in the consumer tariffs capacity charges payable to power producers.

This came to light when the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Monday notified a flat Rs3.2814 per unit additional quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) in electricity bills of all consumer categories (except lifeline consumers) and companies including (K-Electric) for the next six months — October to March 2024. The overall revenue impact goes beyond Rs200bn which includes Rs136bn on account of additional cash flows to 10 ex-Wapda distribution companies (Discos), in addition to 18pc GST.

Simultaneously, the Power Division also silently put on its website the National Electric Plan (NEP) 2023-27 approved by the PDM-led coalition government on Aug 8 envisaging partial recovery of capacity charges payable to IPPs through fixed charges in all consumers except those in very poor category.

The Power Division on the other hand uploaded on its website a circular debt report for the period ending June 30, showing total payables to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) at Rs1.434 trillion and total circular debt at Rs2.31tr. The report card released after a gap of about three months showed payables to IPPs growing by Rs83bn and total circular debt by Rs57bn in FY23 when compared to the previous fiscal year. The payables to public sector generation companies also went up by Rs10bn to Rs111bn.

Caretaker govt silently adopts National Electric Plan 2023-27

Electric plan

“Fixed charges shall be progressively incorporated in the tariffs of all consumer segments except consumers of protected category. Such fixed charges shall duly account for, inter alia, the share of capacity cost in cost of service, market interventions, consumption behaviours and affordability of consumers,” said the NEP which has now been adopted by the caretaker government as well. “It is aimed that by FY27, the fixed charges shall account for at least 20pc of the fixed cost of the respective categories evaluated through a cost-of-service study,” it added.

The plan envisages the continuation of cross-subsidies — electricity to be charged at higher rates from commercial, industrial and higher consumption residential consumers — to finance the sociopolitical responsibility of the government to provide subsidy to the lifeline and protected-category consumers but promises full overall cost recovery of the electricity supply through enhanced rates from all consumers. “Tariffs for the residential consumers shall be progressively adjusted to align with the principle of cost-of-service,” it added.

The tariff design shall be regularly revisited to foster market interventions, cross-subsidy rationalisation, bill & revenue stability and customer satisfaction through multi-part tariff structures, creation & restructuring of slabs in existing categories of the consumers and creation of new categories, etc.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2023

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