Television Drama and Military Rule in Pakistan By Ayesha Tahira Akif

Transcription

Television Drama and Military Rule in Pakistan
By
Ayesha Tahira Akif
Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture
2013
Television Drama and Military Rule in Pakistan
By
Ayesha Tahira Akif
This Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
BACHELOR OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN, from Indus Valley School of Art
and Architecture.
Internal Advisor
:
External Advisor
:
Mahroosh Haider Ali
Hassan Bin Hassan
Gemma Sharpe
Arshad Farooqui
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN
INDUS VALLEY SCHOOL OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE
KARACHI PAKISTAN
2013
Can a deeper understanding of the regimes of General Zia-ul-Haq and
General Pervez Musharraf be developed by looking at the television dramas
made under their respective dictatorships?
╜ ╜ A k i f ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Mahroosh Haider Ali for being extremely supportive and helpful,
especially at a time when I needed a direction. I am also grateful to Hassan Bin Hassan, who
despite having such little time with us as a class, read and re-read our drafts and gave critical
feedback. This dissertation would not have been possible without the continuous support of
Gemma Sharpe who patiently answered all my questions, guided me at every stage of this
research and replied to e-mails even on her days off. I am obliged to Anwar Maqsood, Afiya Zia,
Farooq Sulehria, Mahtab Rashdi, Nazish Brohi, Sahira Kazmi and Sultana Siddiqui who took out
the time for interviews and made this dissertation possible. Lastly, a big thank you to my family
for their support during the writing of this dissertation.
╜╜ ╜ A k i f ABSTRACT
This dissertation looks at the relationship between military rule and television drama in Pakistan.
While focusing primarily on the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq (1977-1988), this research uses
the regime of General Pervez Musharraf as a point of comparison. With the help of literature
available as well as primary research, it presents a general understanding of these two regimes by
using two dramas (from each era) as references. To be able to do so, I look at the extent to
which the regimes interfered with the content of television drama and the effects that they had on
the television dramas being produced in those times. I also question if creativity flourished more
during the restrictive times of Zia as compared to the open and liberal social environment of
Musharraf's rule. In conclusion, I note that although the content of television drama was largely
scrutinised by the Zia-ul-Haq regime, people making dramas found a way to get their message
across in a subtle way. The dramas made during Musharraf's time are more reflective of society
and show the freedom that media clearly enjoyed under him. However, in some places, they are
even more conservative than what we saw in Zia's times.
╜╜╜ ╜ A k i f CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
i
Abstract
ii
Contents
iii
Introduction
1-3
Literature Review
A historical Background
4-7
Television's Role in Shaping Culture
8-9
Television Drama in Pakistan
Research Methodology
9-11
12-16
Findings and Analysis
Part 1
17-20
Part 2
21-29
Conclusion
30
Bibliography
31-32
Appendices
33-63
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f INTRODUCTION
The past few years have been exceptionally hard for Pakistan. Increasing levels of religious and
ethnic intolerance and religious extremism have resulted in conflicts within society. Fear and
insecurity have taken root throughout the country. While going through newspaper editorials and
the many talk shows being aired on news channels, I noticed that much of what has gone wrong
with Pakistan today was being blamed upon the military rule of General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
(1977-1988). I found myself becoming interested in the shift that Pakistan went through in the
pre and post Zia-ul-Haq years. Having been born way after the regime had ended, there was no
personal experience to count on. As my interest developed, I started reading up as much as I
could find on the regime. A series of blog articles titled 'Also Pakistan'1 by cultural critic
Nadeem. F. Paracha created further interest in the topic.
Being a communication design student with an interest in society, politics and culture, I decided
to analyse the regime through visuals. As the material available on print advertisements and
billboards was limiting and might have been difficult to retrieve, I decided to focus on a medium
that tells stories- the television drama.
The first television transmission in Pakistan took place on November 26, 1964.2 The state run
channel, then the only medium of communication apart from newspapers and radio, was also
used by the people in power for their own benefits.3 However, it was the dramas that instantly
1
Nadeem.F. Paracha, 'Also Pakistan III' , Dawn.Com Blog. ( Posted: 26 July 2012).
http://dawn.com/2012/07/26/also-pakistan-iii/ [Last accessed: 14th June, 2013].
2
Agha Nasir, This is PTV...Another day, another world. (Pakistan Television Corporation Publication, 2011), p11.
3
Maleeha Hamid Siddiqi, 'Review: This is PTV- another day, another world'. DAWN Books and Authors, (August 5
2012). http://x.dawn.com/2012/08/05/review-this-is-ptv-another-day-another-world/ [Last accessed: 15 June 2013].
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f became a hit with audiences.4 Within just a few years of its establishment, PTV drama serials
had become famous in both Pakistan and India.5 However, interestingly enough, some of the
most popular dramas of PTV were produced in the 1970s and 1980s which also happened to be
the era of General Zia-ul-Haq.
Out of the country's 65 years of existence, 33 have been governed by the military. Most people in
Pakistan hold the army in high esteem and place it above all civilian organisations due to its
efficiency and discipline.6 'In the course of Pakistan's sixty-year history, there have been several
different attempts radically to change Pakistan, by one civilian and three military regimes.'7
Thus, this dissertation looks at the relationship between television plays and the military
dictatorships that they were made under. I have chosen to look at the Zia-ul-Haq regime through
the lens of television drama. As a contrast, it touches upon the years of General Pervez
Musharraf (1999-2008) very slightly.
The question, thus, that this research seeks to answer is:
Can a deeper understanding of the regimes of General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez
Musharraf be developed by looking at the television dramas made under their respective
dictatorships?
4
Agha Nasir, This is PTV...Another day, another world. p89.
Fouzia Mapara, ' When Drama was King'. DAWN Dot Com, (April 5th 2009).
http://archives.dawn.com/archives/107547 [Last accessed: 19 January 2013].
6
Anatol Lieven. Pakistan A Hard country. London: Penguin, 2011. p 164.
7
Anatol Lieven. Pakistan A Hard country. p23.
5
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Some of the sub questions that it aims to answer are as follows:
Did creativity in television dramas flourish more in the oppressive times of the Zia dictatorship
versus those dramas that were made under the liberal policies of the Musharraf and post
Musharraf years? What were the concerns of the writers and directors when they made these
plays and to what extent were the realities projected on television true of those times? Do these
television plays count as relevant documentation of the regimes they were made under and what
do they say about the Pakistan of those years? Did censorship policies affect the quality of the
writing and production? I have decided to select two television dramas from the Zia-ul-Haq
period and two television dramas from the Musharraf era. They are listed as follows:
From the Zia Period
Tanhaiyaan (1985)
Aangan Terha (late 1980s)
From the Musharraf Period
Doraha (2008)
Band Khirkyon Kay Peechay (2008)
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f LITERATURE REVIEW
A Historical Background
In order to analyze the popular culture of Pakistan, it is necessary to have a deep understanding
of the social, political and historical background of the country as it is of a complex nature. As
this dissertation is going to critically look at television plays that were made under the regimes of
military dictatorships, it was important to read a text that would help me lay out the foundations
for this research as well as enable me to understand the fundamentals on which Pakistan
functions. To get a general understanding of Pakistan, Pakistani society and military, I am
referring to two chapters from Anatol Lieven's book Pakistan A Hard Country.8 While these
chapters do not discuss media or the television industry at any point, they are helpful in
understanding the different relationships that exist between the military and Islam, the military
and the civilian governments, the military and the general civilians.
In the first chapter 'Understanding Pakistan', Lieven explores the subject of the interference of
state in the everyday lives of the people. 9 He argues that in Pakistan, societies are more powerful
than the state in a way that it doesn't make much of a difference to the average person if the state
is being ruled by the military or a civilian government. 10 Although this may be true for state
services such as a lack of healthcare facilities or the situation of law and order, whether or not
this holds true in terms of the content of television dramas is debatable. Even as far as the media
goes, it hasn't just been the military dictatorships that have tried to put controls on journalism and
8
Anatol Lieven, Pakistan A Hard country, (London: Penguin, 2011).
Anatol Lieven, Pakistan A Hard country, p13.
10
9
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f the media at large.11 According to Imran Aslam, president of 'GEO TV' network, journalists were
blackmailed and visited by government officials even during the civilian governments of Benazir
Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.12
Pakistan has had a very close relationship with its military. 13 The second chapter of Lieven's
book is dedicated to the history as well as the structure of the Pakistani army. It is titled 'Military'
and gives an in-depth analysis of the psyche and functioning of the Pakistani army.14 As
discussed above, Lieven says that while most people don't think much of the involvement of the
state in their lives in Pakistan, they have great regard for the army and treat it with honour and
respect.15 He describes the mindset and ideology of the Pakistani army which he says, has always
been pro Pakistani nationalism rather than Muslim nationalism.16 This point is useful to my
dissertation as it focuses on the regimes of General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf.
Even though, during Zia-ul-Haq's regime, Islamic preaching had begun to take place within the
army and other aspects of social life. However, most of these measures were taken back during
the time of Musharraf.17 These chapters present a largely unbiased picture of how these political
and social structures work in Pakistan. The second text that I am referring to for my dissertation
is a journal article titled 'Military Rule, Islamism and Democracy in Pakistan' by Vali Nasr.18
While Lieven argues that the Pakistani army has been a non Islamist institution with the
exception of Zia-ul-Haq, Nasr in his article states that the relationship between the military,
11
Imran Aslam and Kamran Asdar Ali, 'Media Matters in Pakistan' , Middle East Report No. 251, Pakistan under
Pressure (Summer, 2009), 32-33.
12
Imran Aslam and Kamran Asdar Ali, 'Media Matters in Pakistan', 32-33.
13
Anatol Lieven, 'The Military', Pakistan A Hard country. London: Penguin, 2011. pp 161-164.
14
Anatol Lieven, Pakistan A Hard country, pp 167- 203.
15
16
Anatol Lieven, Pakistan A Hard country, pp 183- 184.
17
18
Vali Nasr, 'Military Rule, Islamism and Democracy in Pakistan', Middle East Journal Volume 58. No.2 B (Spring
2004), 195-209.
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f democratic parties and Islam is much more complex. He discusses how Islam is often brought in
the matters of the state in the interest of the ruling power whether it be civilian or military
governments.19
He writes that ever since the 1970s,whether it has been the military or the civilian governments,
both have dealt with the relationship of Islam and state in their own ways. As is common
knowledge to most Pakistanis who either witnessed the years of the Zia regime or heard about it
through older generations, Nasr also mentions that during the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq,
Islamist policies were applied to all affairs of the state and public life including policies relating
to popular culture.20 According to Aslam, while Musharraf allowed private channels to open, it
took some time before 'GEO' could be run from Pakistan and was broadcast from Dubai for the
initial period.21
While discussing the differences between General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf,
both Lieven and Nasr share a similar point of view. The combined view of these writers is that
while both military rulers tried to drastically change the way that Pakistan was running, their
ideologies were poles apart.
Zia's idea was to form a state where Islam played a dominant role in the affairs of the state while
Musharraf focused on improving the economy of the country.22 Perhaps this would also explain
the growth of private television channels that flourished under Musharraf. According to Nasr,
Musharraf proved successful in removing the hold of Islamist policies from public life and the
19
Vali Nasr, 'Military Rule, Islamism and Democracy in Pakistan', 195-196.
Vali Nasr, 'Military Rule, Islamism and Democracy in Pakistan', 196.
21
Imran Aslam and Kamran Asdar Ali, 'Media Matters in Pakistan' 33.
20
22
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f strictness on popular culture was also relaxed.23 While the above mentioned texts discuss the
policies that were implemented by the two dictators, it is also important to look at the general
opinion that people today have about both dictators in order to understand their regimes. As far
as Zia-ul-Haq is concerned, there are contrasting opinions about him by bloggers and writers on
the web. In a blog titled, 'Zia ruined us, make no mistake', Abdul Majeed puts much of the blame
of everything that has gone wrong in Pakistan on the shoulders of the dictator claiming that it
was he who forced Islam upon the country and indulged in the killing of innocent people.24
However, there are others do not think of Zia as the monster he is made out to be. Aaker Patel in
his article, 'In Praise of Zia', argues that it is wrong to blame Zia- ul-Haq for all the problems of
Pakistan. 25 He adds that even after more than two decades of his regime, the Hudood laws
established by Zia-ul-Haq still remain. He also mentions that laws restricting any non Muslim to
become the prime minister were first initiated by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as was the banning of
alcohol.
Although the texts discussed in this section are helpful in understanding the basic psyche of both
regimes, there is very little literature available on the relationship of these regimes to television
dramas or any other form of visual expression.
23
Abdul Majeed,' Zia ruined us, make no mistake', The Express Tribune Blogs, (Posted September 28 2012).
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/14090/zia-ruined-us-make-no-mistake/ [ Last accessed: 19th January 2013].
25
Aaker Patel, ' In Praise of Zia', The Express Tribune, (August 18th 2012)
http://tribune.com.pk/story/423864/in-praise-of-zia/ [Last accessed: 20 January 2013]
24
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Television's Role in Shaping Culture
Human beings have been surrounded by stories since times immemorial.26 Over the centuries,
storytelling has been used for communication, entertainment as well as documentation of
history.27 In recent times, the stories we see and grow up with are the ones that we see on
television.28 In order to move ahead with this dissertation, it is important to have a theoretic
framework that allows us to understand the importance of television as a medium of cultural
relevance and one that can be representative of the social and political systems of any country. In
his research paper,' Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture', Douglas Kellner says
that it is through products of media such as television, radio and film that societies form their
identities and nurture a sense of ethnicity, race, nationality and sexuality among other things.29
Prior to this, culture was studied in the context of literature and media studies were thought of as
useless and trashy.30 He adds that stories projected through the media develop our sense of
values and morals thereby constituting a culture.31 In his opinion, it is important to interpret and
critically look at the media around us because of the deep involvement it has with our lives and
because it alters the way we think, behave and view ourselves and others in the society.32
Cultural studies insists that culture must be studied within the social relations and system
through which culture is produced and consumed, and that thus study of culture is intimately
bound up with the study of society, politics, and economics. Culturalstudies shows how
26
Jim Woodard,' Storytelling past present future' Stroyteller.net, ('upload date unknown').
http://www.storyteller.net/articles/7 [Last accessed: 19th January 2012].
27
Jim Woodard,' Storytelling past present future' Stroyteller.net.
28
George Gerbner, 'Cultivation Analysis- An Overview', Communicator (October- December 2000.) 3-11.
29
Douglas Kellner, ' Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture,' 1994. UCLA.
30
Douglas Kellner, ' Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture', 1.
31
Douglas Kellner, ' Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture', 1.
32
Douglas Kellner, ' Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture', 1-3.
‫ﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f media culture articulates the dominant values, political ideologies, and social developments
and novelties of the era.33
However, the question that arises here and one that this dissertation also seeks to answer is
whether the stories portrayed on television are based on the realities of the era or whether they
are constructed by the people who create them. In his theory of cultivation, George Gerbner
argues that images portrayed on television depict a reality that is very different from what
actually exists.34 Perhaps, this point can be also be taken into consideration while discussing
government policies and whether the government, too, controls what people see and creates its
own social reality on television. According to Gerbner, what we see on television is like a
stereotype of the culture around us. In reality, the culture of any society is diverse and consists of
varying elements, beliefs, set of values, etc. However, when it comes to television, a general
summarized version of all those elements is presented to us.35 As mentioned above, Gerbner's
theory is more focused on the aftermath of television viewing and the process through which an
individual's thinking gets altered and affected. 36
However, both Kellner and Gerbner agree the stories people see on television constantly shape
their ideas and opinions about pretty much everything in the World.37
Television Drama in Pakistan
The first ever television transmission of Pakistan took place on November 26, 1964.38 However,
the Pakistan Television Corporation Limited officially came into being on June 27, 1964, it was
33
Douglas Kellner, 'Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture', 2.
George Gerbner, 'Cultivation Analysis- An Overview', Communicator (October- December 2000). 3-11.
35
George Gerbner, 'Cultivation Analysis- An Overview', 6.
36
37
34
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f previously a private company by the name of The Television Promoters Company (private)
Limited.39 Agha Nasir's book This is PTV...Another day, another world provides a detailed
account of the birth of PTV as well as its journey through the years. Television was introduced in
Pakistan by president Ayub Khan and it was he who laid down the foundation of PTV's
policies.40 'Whatever shape television takes, the government would have the main say in the
formation of its policy and in the projection of views and ideas.'41 This remained true for the
most governments that were to rule Pakistan later. When General Zia took charge, he began to
change how PTV was being run and wanted the channel to focus more on religious
programmes.42
Despite the resentment and hatred often associated with Zia-ul-Haq,43 the television plays made
during his regime hold a completely different meaning for audiences who had little entertainment
besides the state run channel PTV.44 Hani Taha, in his blog, provides the views of both
contemporary and veteran drama makers. While contemporary director Sarmad Khoosat argues
that television dramas of modern times enjoy the same popularity that was once given to dramas
such as Tanhaiyaan or Dhoop Kinaray, legendary playwright Anwar Maqsood disagrees.45 He
says that producers are now interested in ratings more than the quality of the product.46 While
there is a lot of talk about the decline in the quality of the Urdu television drama, there is little
literature available on the factors that went behind the content of the television dramas. The
38
40
Agha Nasir, This is PTV...Another day, another world. pp 64-75.
41
President General Ayub Khan. 'quoted in' Agha Nasir. This is PTV...Another day, another world. Pakistan
Television Corporation publication.
42
Agha Nasir, This is PTV...Another day, Another World. pp 79-81.
43
Abdul Majeed,' Zia ruined us, make no mistake.' The Express Tribune Blogs.
44
Hani Taha, ' Pakistani Drama Industry - From Gold to Ashes', The Express Tribune. December 16th 2011.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/307611/pakistan-drama-industry-from-gold-to-ashes/ [Last accessed: 19th January 2013]
39
45
46
Hani Taha, ' Pakistani Drama Industry - From Gold to Ashes', The Express Tribune.
Hani Taha, ' Pakistani Drama Industry - From Gold to Ashes', The Express Tribune.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf is an interesting one for he was a dictator who allowed
a number of private channels to open up. According to Agha Nasir, the General did not interfere
in the running of the electronic media including PTV.47 However, nearing the end of his tenure,
Musharraf imposed emergency in the country and all private news channels went off air before
being restored a few weeks later.48
47
48
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The aim of this dissertation can be stated as follows:
To Understand the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq by looking at the television dramas made
during his regime and using the television dramas made during the dictatorship of General
Pervez Musharraf as a point of comparison.
As it was not possible to watch every television drama that came out under these two regimes, I
have decided to select two dramas from each era. As many plays came during the 11 years of
Zia's rule, I based my selection primarily on the popularity of the dramas. Tanhayiaan was
perhaps one of the most popular television dramas to have ever been made in the history of
television in the country and could well be placed within the category of a romantic comedy.
Anwar Maqsood's Aangan Terha, although a satirical play, was a criticism of martial law in the
country and also touched upon other political and social issues. These are listed as follows:
From the Zia-ul-Haq Period
Aangan Terha (late 1980s). Directed by Qaiser Farooq, written by Anwar Maqsood.
Tanhayiaan (1985). Directed by Shahzad Khalil, written by Haseena Moin.
From the Pervez Musharraf Period
Doraha (2008). Directed by Mehreen Jabbar, written by Umera Ahmed.
Band Khirkyon Kay Peechay Directed by Shaqielle Khan, written by Sameera Fazal.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f These television dramas will not be used as case studies, however, they shall be used for
reference where ever needed. In order to answer these questions, this dissertation employs two
methods of research: Primary Research and Secondary Research. As there was very limited
literature available on military dictatorships and their relationship with television plays and/or
visual culture, I decided to select readings that would give me an overview of what these
dictatorships were like. The sources for my secondary research include blogs, newspaper articles,
journal articles as well as books. The secondary research was divided into three sections:
Historical background, Television's role in shaping culture, and Television Drama in Pakistan.
For a background understanding of Pakistan and the various governments that have ruled it over
the years, I chose to select a few chapters from Anatol Lieven's book, Pakistan a Hard country49
that is a broad discussion of the way that Pakistan works and also provides an insight into the
structure of the army.50 For further understanding of the Zia and Musharraf eras, I decided to
look at two journal articles that clarified my understanding of these periods.51 However, it was
also important to know what the local newspapers and blogs had to say about these dictatorships.
To gain insight into this, I have looked at blogs and articles published in the Express Tribune as
well as DAWN. It was interesting to note how writers of these articles had extremely contrasting
views on Zia-ul-Haq.52
49
Anatol Lieven. Pakistan A Hard country.( London: Penguin, 2011).
Anatol Lieven. Pakistan A Hard country. pp 167- 203.
51
Vali Nasr, 'Military Rule, Islamism and Democracy in Pakistan', Middle East Journal, Volume 58. No.2 B.(Spring
2004): 195-209 and Imran Aslam and Kamran Asdar Ali, 'Media Matters in Pakistan', Middle East Report, No. 251,
Pakistan under Pressure (Summer, 2009):32-33.
52
Bloggers and authors on the Express Tribune have contrasting opinions about the Zia-ul-Haq regime. While one
blames Zia for everything that has gone wrong with Pakistan (Abdul Majeed,' Zia ruined us, make no mistake.' The
Express Tribune Blogs, (Posted September 28th 2012), the other has positive remarks about the dictator. (Aaker
Patel, ' In Praise of Zia.' The Express Tribune. (August 18th 2012)
50
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f There is a dearth of literature available on the Pakistani television dramas. However, few books
exist on PTV. One of them is This is PTV..Another day, another world by Agha Nasir which I
have used to aid this research. Other than this, information available is in the form of newspaper
articles and blogs. Of recent, many bloggers have made television dramas the focus of their
writing and while there are a lot of opinions available, the blog as an academic source is weak
and does not count for authentic information all the time. I have conducted primary research to
fill in these gaps.
Since this dissertation is dealing with issues that are entirely subjective in nature, the method
used for primary research is qualitative in nature. This dissertation is looking at a lot of social,
cultural and political issues at the same time and thus, quantitative methods were not deemed
suitable in this case. The findings for this research are most likely to read like a social
commentary rather than a breakdown of percentages.
One-on-one interviews were conducted with people who were involved in the production of
television plays during the regimes of Zia-ul-Haq's and Musharraf respectively as well as
professionals currently associated with the television drama industry today. Journalists and
academics with knowledge on the subject have also been interviewed to gain a wholesome
perspective. Following is the list of people interviewed:
Afiya Zia
Afiya Zia is a researcher and activist. She writes extensively on politics and media in Pakistan
and has been published both in Pakistan and abroad. Many of her articles talk about the
dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Anwar Maqsood
Anwar Maqsood has worked as a writer for television under Zia-ul-Haq's regime. He wrote both
skits as well as dramas. He was witness to the years of the regime and had talked to the martial
law ruler himself on a couple of occasions. Maqsood is treated with utmost respect in the
television drama industry and currently writes for theatre.
Farooq Sulehria
Farooq Sulehria has been a journalist for the past 17 years who has written extensively on the
Zia-ul- Haq dictatorship. He wrote a thesis on Jihadi plays under Zia as part of his masters
degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
Mahtab Rashidi
Mahtab Rashidi worked as a television anchor in the Zia-ul-Haq years. Although she was not
related to television plays, she became famous for refusing to cover her head with a dupatta
under the martial law regime.
Nazish Brohi
Nazish Brohi is an activist and author who writes on politics, women and the media.
Sahira Kazmi
Sahira Kazmi started her career as an actor and later started working as a director and producer
under the Zia-ul-Haq regime.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Sultana Siddiqui
Sultana Siddiqui has been around in the television industry for a while. She started her career in
the pre Zia years in Pakistan and is the owner of a popular TV channel, 'HUM TV'.
I have selected these people for various reasons. They are writers, actors, directors and critics
who were able to give me an understanding of the journey television has had over the years
under different regimes. The interviews with Anwar Maqsood, Sultana Siddiqui, Mahtab Rashidi
and Nazish Brohi were conducted in person while the interview with Farooq Sulehria was
conducted via skype and that with Afiya Zia was conducted via e-mail. Sahira Kazmi was
interviewed on the phone. Considering the busy schedules of most TV personalities, it was a
challenge to get time from them. Marina Khan, Haseena Moin, Sonia Rehman Qureshi and
Bushra Ansari were also contacted many times, however, they were unavailable for an interview.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
PART 1
As watching the chosen dramas was part of the primary research done for this dissertation, I have
included a brief synopsis as well as my own analysis of each drama in this chapter. As mentioned
earlier, the dramas have only been used as references. The research has been directed towards a
general understanding of the television drama industry under the given dictatorships.
Television Dramas under Zia-ul-Haq
Aangan Terha (late 1980s). Directed by Qaiser Farooq, written by Anwar Maqsood.
A satirical comedy, Anwar Maqsood's Aangan Terha was aired on PTV in the late 1980s. Akbar,
a classical dancer having been fired from his job, takes up the position of a cook in the house of
Mehboob Ahmed,(a retired civil servant) and Jehan Ara, his wife. According to Maqsood, the
idea for Aangan Terha came to him when a friend of his lost his job at the PIA arts academy
which had been shut down by the Zia-ul-Haq dictatorship.53 Despite the oppression, Maqsood
was able to get his message across through clever and subtle dialogues. The drama is a social
commentary of sorts that talks about the problems existent in society at that time.
Simultaneously, it also criticises the way that Pakistan was being run by the regime. The main
female character played by famous actor Bushra Ansari, has been portrayed as a loud, talkative
and assertive woman. She dresses in a saree and does not cover her head. However, what is most
interesting about this drama is the character of the classical dancer Akbar played by Saleem
Nasir. At a time when dance and music were frowned upon, Nasir plays a character who starts
53
Anwar Maqsood interviewed 28th January 2013. [interview was conducted in person and recorded and
transcribed].
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f dancing every time he gets a chance. Nazish Brohi feels that at this point when Aangan Terha
was adapted for theatre and performed, it was merely watched as a satirical comedy talking about
society's issues.54 However, watching it then had different connotations.
If I am to watch it during Zia's time, what would strike me more would be Saleem Nasir,
not only because he was such a superb actor but also because in Zia's time when
performing arts have been banned, here is this man who is on television saying that I am
a dancer who got thrown out of a job and now I am reduced to the status of a servant and
because he seems overtly effeminate, there is another challenge issued through such
things for instance that of sexuality in a society which just wanted to pretend that sex
didn't happen and here he is talking about an alternative form of sexuality very clearly.55
Tanhaiyaan (1985). Directed by Shahzad Khalil, written by Haseena Moin.
Tanhaiyaan was aired in 1985, a time when the Zia-ul-Haq regime had long been around.
Although seemingly non political, given that it was aired under such a strict military regime, it
had elements which were extremely political in nature. It is the story of two young women Zara
and Sanya who come to stay with their aunt in Karachi while their parents are away. The parents
pass away in an accident leaving the daughters in a huge debt to pay off. In order to do so, their
family house has to be sold off and thus begins Zara's struggle to collect enough money so she
can re buy the house. The drama shows strong women characters as well as an attitude of
normalcy towards interaction between men and women. Zara's close friend Zain who she
eventually marries, is shown to visit her on and off.56 Her aunt played by Badar Khalil is shown
54
55
56
Nazish Brohi interviewed 26th March 2013. [interview was conducted in person, recorded and transcribed.]
Nazish Brohi interviewed 26th March 2013.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f to be a bit of a feminist, wearing lots of make-up and clad in a saree. Similarly, Zara's boss
dropping her home in his car alone is a striking thing to see on television in the Zia regime.
Television Dramas under Musharraf
Doraha (2008).57 Directed by Mehreen Jabbar, written by Umera Ahmed.
Doraha is a social commentary that depicts various elements of the Pakistani society. Taking
predictable themes such as love and conflict, it picks on issues relating to class, gender,
stereotypes and family pressures. The story revolves around Umer, a young man belonging to a
middle class Karachi family with big ambitions. He marries Sara, a class fellow from university
despite his family's opposition. Sara comes from a well-off family who show their reservations
about her choosing to go into a house where she is not welcome. Although Musharraf's era was
liberating for television in Pakistan, the story of Doraha remains rooted in the problems and
unpleasant behaviours of a middle class family. The drama seems extremely conservative and
bitter in nature and is a reflection of brutal social problems as compared to the rather light
Tanhaiyaan that dealt more with the characters' own issues rather than those existent in society.
However, while Sara has been shown as a modern and independent minded woman who goes out
with the future husband for a drive or for a cup of coffee (this was also seen in Tanhaiyaan). The
issue of domestic violence (faced by Sara in her second marriage) as well as that of divorce that
remains to this date, a taboo, is also shown openly. Opinions about love and marriage are
discussed and shared with the elders of the family regardless of the socio economic status of a
family. There is ample interaction and intimacy between men and women. This shows that by
57
Although the drama was aired in October, two months after Musharraf's tenure ended in Pakistan, it would still
very much count as a production of the Musharraf era.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f this time towards the end of the Musharraf era, private channels had become used to taking such
liberties in their television dramas.
Band Khirkyon Kay Peechay Directed by Shaqielle Khan, written by Sameera Fazal.
The title of the drama literally means behind closed doors. It is the story of four women living
the high life in Karachi, belonging to the upper strata of society and portrayed as rather snobby.
They are either divorced or stuck in loveless marriages, habitually plot against each other and
indulge in secret affairs. A product of the Musharraf era, this drama was perhaps one of the
boldest that came out as a result of private television channels in Pakistan. It is both a
stereotypical as well as a realistic representation of socialites whose lives revolve around parties,
beauty salons, gossip and the magazine that comes with the Sunday paper.
Perhaps a complete opposite of what was on television during the Zia-ul-Haq regime, the drama
explicitly shows the consumption of alcohol and cigarettes by both men and women. Imagery
showing intimacy between men and women is also used continually throughout the drama.
Tabinda, the youngest of the four friends gets stuck in a romantic affair with the son of another
friend Attia. Played by actress Gia Ali, Tabinda is shown in revealing clothes (showing more
skin than is usually acceptable in our society) as compared to her older friends. However, Meena
(played by Sonia Rehman Qureshi) also finds herself involved in an affair with a younger man.
The intertwined lives of these ladies go through several ups and downs created by their own
scandals. Perhaps by this time, television drama had come to a point when it had become okay to
show anything and everything.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f PART 2
The aim of this research was to decode the regime of General Zia-ul-Haq by looking at television
plays produced under his era and to simultaneously compare this situation with the years of
General Pervez Musharraf's rule in Pakistan. In order to comment on this, this dissertation takes
references from secondary sources and primary research. The Musharraf era will be discussed
secondarily as a point of comparison, however the primary focus remains the Zia-ul- Haq
regime.
It was Ayub Khan who had introduced television in Pakistan and in a speech declared that the
government would have the dominant role in shaping the policy for television.58 Agha Nasir's
research is backed by writer Anwar Maqsood who says that television did not come into Pakistan
for the sake of entertainment.59 "Election jitanay kay lye Pakistan may TV aya aur television ki
wajah say Ayub Khan election jeet gaye, uss wakt TV poora control government kay paas
tha."60( Thus, television came to Pakistan for winning an election and it was because of this that
Ayub Khan won the election. At that time, the government had full control over this medium).
When it comes to talking about the Zia regime, Maqsood has no qualms in declaring that for ten
years, Zia did huge disservice to television. Director Sultana Siddiqui has similar feelings. "Jesay
hi Zia-ul-Haq aya to har cheez may woh politics daalnay lagay."61 (As soon as Zia-ul-Haq came,
he started politicising everything). Journalist and researcher Farooq Sulehria stresses on the fact
that there was brutal censorship under Zia, one that has not been witnessed in the country ever.62
He adds that each and every word in a script had to go through a long process before it was
58
Anwar Maqsood interviewed 28th January 2013.
60
61
Sultana Siddiqui interviewed 1st March 2013. [interview was conducted in person and recorded and transcribed.]
62
Farooq Sulehria interviewed 12th March 2013.
59
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f aired.63 The famous TV anchor Mahtab Rashdi goes as far as saying that the environment during
the regime was suffocating.64 Zia-ul-Haq had made it very clear that everything on PTV should
be in accordance with what he considered to be Islamic. "I would like radio and TV to seriously
consider broadcasting good religious programmes. For this purpose, I would like some experts to
put their heads together and come up with good proposals."65 However, when it came to General
Pervez Musharraf, his dictatorship took a completely different route than that of Zia. The
Musharraf dictatorship allowed for a lot of liberty in the entertainment sector, Musharraf himself
was known for being fond of music and drinking.66 Maqsood agrees with this statement and says
that Musharraf gave full liberty to the channels to show singing or dancing as long as they did
not criticise the army.67 In Band Khirkyon Kay Peechay, the consumption of alcohol by both men
and women is openly shown as are parties, extra marital affairs and visuals of intimacy between
men and women. Thus, the television drama did not really have to face any restrictions under
Musharraf. Sultana Siddiqui, who is the CEO at 'Hum TV', says that apart from a few minor
laws, drama makers mostly do as they please and there are no restrictions anymore as such.68
Nadeem.F. Paracha who has penned countless articles and blogs on the Zia years, writes that the
martial law regime would habitually ban films, television shows and books if they were
considered to be against the ideology of Pakistan and Islam.69 However, Maqsood adds that the
dictator wasn't that harsh with him as some of his boldest work came out during the regime.
63
Mahtab Rashidi interviewed 21st March 2013.[interview was conducted in person, recorded and transcribed.]
65
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, quoted in Agha Nasir, This is PTV...Another day, another world, (Pakistan
Television Corporation Publicatio).p 79.
66
Vali Nasr, 'Military Rule, Islamism and Democracy in Pakistan', Middle East Journal, Volume 58. No.2 B(Spring
2004): 195-209.
67
68
Sultana Siddiquie interviewed 1st March 2013.
69
Nadeem. F. Paracha, ' Of Shades and Sprees', DAWN. February 3rd, 2013.
http://dawn.com/2013/02/03/smokers-corner-of-shades-and-sprees/ [Last accessed: 23 April 2013]
64
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Dus saal Zia-ul-Haq nay bohot ziadti ki TV kay sath, meray sath naheen ki kyunkay
meray jitnay bold programs hain woh Zia sahab kay zamanay may aye magar bund kar
dye gaye, koi program nau haftay baad, koi chaar haftay baad aur mujh say kehtay thay
kay aap hukoomat ki taarifain kyoon naheen likhtay.70(For ten years, Zia-ul-Haq really
played havoc with television. He could not fully extinguish my programs because most of
my bold programmes ran in his period
one for nine weeks, another for four weeks, and
so on. He would say to me why do you not write in praise of the government?).
Actor/director/producer Sahira Kazmi agrees with Maqsood to a certain extent."Some of our
most popular plays have been done in Mr Zia ul Haq's time."71 However, she disagrees with
Maqsood as far as being unfair to television is concerned. "I didn't think he was that strict with
television"72 is how she puts it. Afiya Zia, while agreeing that media was controlled, says that
television perhaps suffered a lot less as compared to other forms of art.73 "Art that was killed in
its creative expression was more so cinema, theatre and fine arts but television was still held on
to by progressives as was journalism."74
By looking at the literature available as well as the material obtained through primary research, it
becomes rather clear that the content of television drama was being largely and solely controlled
by the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq. Although restricted and controlled, television
drama makers were able to get their message across and dramas kept going into production
during the regime. They had to be clever in the way that they did things in order to get past the
censorship authorities. With the exception of Sahira Kazmi, the general understanding that can
70
Sahira Kazmi interviewed 17th April 2013.[ interview was conducted on the phone, recorded and transcribed.]
72
Sahira Kazmi interviewed 17th April 2013.
73
Afiya. S. Zia interviewed 29th April 2013.[ interview was conducted via e-mail.]
74
Afiya. S. Zia interviewed 29th April 2013.
71
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f be derived is that there was intense censorship as far as television plays were concerned. While
some artists worked to please the regime, others showed resistance. Musharraf, on the other
hand, promoted young talent and let them take liberties on television.
Creativity under dictatorship
The crux of the Zia regime was to rid television and cinema of anything that the regime
considered to be immoral or against the philosophy of Islam.75 Sultana Siddiqui agrees and says
that there could not be any talk about democracy, or Bhutto or the army, the dupatta for women
always had to be present and everybody was suddenly expected to become a "Muslim." She feels
that all these restrictions affected the creativity of television drama adversely.76 Furthermore,
Siddiqui mentions that the policies were liberal in the pre Zia years as well as in the Musharraf
years. She says that there are almost no restrictions as far as television plays are concerned in this
day and age especially with the initiation of the private channels.77 Maqsood, whilst stating that
the he did manage to get away with a lot of things, says that it was really difficult to get even a
single script approved and only 17 to 18 pages out of a 50 page script would usually get
approved.78 Nazish Brohi states that things on television had to be done with a lot of subtlety as
there was no other choice."79
'There are all these subtexts that you can understand of how people manage to get their
message across, so even if you look at television programmes of that time, some of it was
75
Nadeem. F. Paracha, ' Of Shades and Sprees', DAWN. February 3rd, 2013.
77
78
79
Nazish Brohi interviewed 26th March 2013. [interview was conducted in person, recorded and transcribed.]
76
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f very, very political, the kind of things Anwar Maqsood sahab came up with, so they said
a lot of things between the lines but it was not overt.'80
Afiya Zia shares similar thoughts, "I think that women dramatists and writers and comedy of
course remained subversive and infiltrated mainstream media including TV in many
ways."81 However, whether or not creativity fared better any better sans the restrictions in the
Musharraf era has been a point of debate within the industry. A general statement often made is
that the golden age of dramas has gone and that television drama today has fallen victim to
commercialisation.
dramas out of a myriad produced during the 30-year reign of state-run television stood
out. If you compare it to the 11 memorable ones that stood out in the last three of four years, you
will realise that the average is the same."82 is how Vasay Choudhary defends the new age dramas
versus the old.
Brohi says that since there was so much restriction, social realities could not be portrayed on
television as they were and one had to read between the lines to understand a lot of things. "I
think it is important to locate what was happening back at Zia's time and read around the
television plays, what was not said, what was said in other contexts and what was said in other
ways."83
80
Afiya. S. Zia interviewed 29th April 2013
82
Vasay Choudhary. 'quoted in' Hani Taha. Pakistani drama industry: From Gold to Ashes. The Express Tribune
Blogs. December 16th, 2011.
83
81
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f During the Zia years, many writers were banned from writing for television as well as radio.84
Journalist Farooq Sulehria supports this statement and feels that the door was simply shut on
creativity as an important section of the intelligentsia was banned from writing for or appearing
on television.85 'For creativity, you need to have an atmosphere where you write without fear.'86
adds Sulehria. However, he goes on to state that some very good television dramas were aired
during the 1980s and some great literature and poetry was also created during Zia-ul-Haq's
regime.
'yeh kehna kay jabar kay mahol may bhi acha adab create ho sakta hai ya naheen ho
sakta iss ka hum hatmi faisla toh naheen kar saktay lekin amoman yehi nazar ata hai kay
agar azaad-i-izhaar hoga toh creativity ziada hogi. Hamay yeh toh pata hai kay faiz nay
yeh likha tha ya jalib nay yeh likha tha lekin bohot say log hongay meray jesay buzdil jo
unhon ne dekha kay yaar faiz ko toh jail may daal dia ya jaalib ko sarak kay ooper
danday maray jatay thay woh becharay dar kay ghar beth jatay hain.' (While a concrete
statement is hard to give on whether or not creativity flourishes more under oppression or
not, usually creativity flourishes in an environment of freedom. We know what Faiz
wrote and what Jalib wrote but maybe there were many others like myself, who saw that
Faiz was sent to Jail or that Jalid was being beaten up on the street and thus they sit
quietly because of fear.)
However, Sahira Kazmi completely disagrees and states that the problems one faced while
making a television drama were mostly related to social problems rather than restrictions
84
Adnan Farooq,' Zia banned them on PTV, Radio Pakistan'. View Point. April 19th, 2013.Web.
http://www.viewpointonline.net/zia-banned-them-on-ptv-radio-pakistan.html [Last accessed: 23 April 2013]
85
86
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f imposed or created by the government.87 "I was working at that time and I will say this, that
where plays were concerned, there was not that much of a hassle." Kazmi adds that the law of
keeping the head covered with a dupatta for the women was mostly limited to the news anchors.
For Kazmi, the difficulties she had to face were mostly because the television drama industry
was a male dominated one at that time and especially the kind of subjects that she was dealing
with such as women's rights and social issues, the problems faced by her mostly had to do with
the fact that she was a woman in a male dominated work space.
Keeping in mind the above responses from the different interviewees as well as the literature
available, perhaps one cannot come to a definitive conclusion as to whether the television dramas
fared better in terms of creativity under the strictness of Zia or in the openness provided by
Musharraf, however, it can be said that there indeed was an immense amount of censorship and
restrictions that made it hard for people in the industry to work freely in the Zia regime.
However, since they didn't have a choice, people found a way of expressing their opinions in a
subtle manner which required them to perhaps think more creatively. As for the dramas in the
Musharraf and post Musharraf times, while Maqsood, Kazmi and Brohi feel that the vast variety
of channels and ample opportunities have resulted in mindless entertainment being produced,
Siddiqi feels that the glory being attributed to dramas such as Humsafar is the same as perhaps
what Tanhaiyaan enjoyed back in the day. However, in my opinion, the freedom and choice in
the entertainment industry has allowed for a variety of styles and stories in the genre of television
drama and perhaps, it is important to keep in mind that in today's world, it is much harder to fight
for an audience's attention as they have the internet, mobiles and various other forms of
entertainment.
87
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Understanding the Regime through Television Plays
According to Kellner is his study of culture, media is a representation of social values and norms.
'Cultural studies shows how media articulates dominant values, political ideologies, and social
developments and novelties of the era.'88 However, for societies being governed by military
dictatorships, one would have to question the images being shown on television. In his theory of
cultivation, George Gerbner argues that what we see on television is not always a true depiction
of the culture around us, it is a constructed culture.89 According to Nazish Brohi, the realities of
the time could not be projected in television plays because of extreme censorship. She adds that
one of the ways that the regime turned people towards a more religious mindset was done
through television as the woman draped from head to toe was shown to be the pious one and this
is how the regime worked its way towards shifting the identification of what the Pakistani
woman was.90 Sahira Kazmi agrees to a certain extent, she says that there was a bit of
everything on television and it wasn't really reflective of what was happening in the country.91
However, looking at Aangan Terha, one is able to see a more humane side of the era, one is able
to see the acceptability of having an effeminate classical dancer being on television. In
Tanhaiyaan, the characters seem to be living in a perfectly happy world other than their own
problems. This holds true even today, as Anatol Lieven mentions that to most Pakistanis, it really
doesn't matter whether the country is being ruled by a dictatorship or a democracy.92
Talking about Tanhayiaan, Farooq Sulehria says that in a time when Karachi was going through
all sorts of problems, Haseena Moin who lived in Karachi could only see the psychological
88
Douglas Kellner, ' Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture.' p 2.
George Gerbner, 'Cultivation Analysis- An Overview', Communicator (October- December 2000.) 3-11.
90
91
92
89
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f problems of a middle/upper middle class family about whom she wrote.93 Perhaps, in a
repressive environment, people wanted escapism, too. 'Romantic comedy is not my definition of
resistance but maybe for others.'94 is what Afiya Zia has to say about Tanhaiyaan. Based on the
opinions mentioned above, it can be said that although Tanhaiyaan didn't talk about politics or
resistance towards the regime overtly, by showing the things that it did, it still managed to raise
questions and challenge the oppression that was around.
93
94
Afiya. S. Zia interviewed 29th April 2013
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f CONCLUSION
While the Zia-ul-Haq regime that ruled Pakistan for 11 years (1977-1988) imposed various
restrictions based on its own perception of Islam in the country, the television drama industry
managed to survive it quite well. As both the literature reviewed as well as the interviews have
shown, the content of television drama was strictly scrutinized by the Zia regime and thus, it was
hard to depict social realities as they were. However, people who had been involved with the
television industry had to keep going and they figured out ways to work within the system and
got their message across in a subtle and clever way. Even though controlled, images on
television can be used to read between the lines of the regime. The dramas used as reference
show that at a time of great oppression, it was okay to show an effeminate classical dancer on
television, that it was okay for women to go out of their homes, drive cars and get to work. They
show to us, a more humane side of the regime whilst also showing that the regime was constantly
being challenged and questioned by the medium of television drama. The dramas made in
Musharraf's era are perhaps a better reflection of society as it was during his rule. There were no
restrictions of any kind on the content of television drama during his rule. They seem to be more
spontaneous and are closer to life. Pakistan, however, is an extremely diverse country and not
every drama that is aired can speak of the whole society in its entirety. The openness and social
liberalism that Musharraf stood for comes through clearly in Band Khirkyon Kay Peechay
whereas Doraha showcases the class divide in urban centres. As far as creativity is concerned,
both eras saw dramas that gained popularity and critical acclaim, it is hard to say which dramas
are better or more creative as it is more of a debate between the older generation of writers and
directors versus the new. However, in times of restriction, writers were challenged to think in
different ways in order to get their script approved yet say what they wished to.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aaker Patel, 'In Praise of Zia', The Express Tribune, (August 18th 2012).
http://tribune.com.pk/story/423864/in-praise-of-zia/ [Last accessed: 20 January 2013]
Aslam, Imran and Kamran Asdar Ali. 'Media Matters in Pakistan', Middle East Report, No. 251,
Pakistan under Pressure. (Summer, 2009): 32-33.
Farooq, Adnan Farooq.' Zia banned them on PTV, Radio Pakistan'. View Point. (Posted April 19
2013).
http://www.viewpointonline.net/zia-banned-them-on-ptv-radio-pakistan.html [Last accessed:
23rd April 2013]
Fouzia Mapara, 'When Drama was King'. DAWN dot com, (April 5th 2009).
http://archives.dawn.com/archives/107547 [Last accessed: 19 January 2013].
Gerbner, George. 'Cultivation Analysis- An Overview', Communicator, (October- December,
2000): 3-11.
Hani Taha. ' Pakistani Drama Industry - From Gold to Ashes.' The Express Tribune, (December
16th 2011).
http://tribune.com.pk/story/307611/pakistan-drama-industry-from-gold-to-ashes/ [Last accessed:
19th January 2013]
Jim Woodard. 'Storytelling past present future', Stroyteller.net, ('upload date unknown').
http://www.storyteller.net/articles/7 [Last accessed: 19th January 2012]
Kellner, Douglas.'Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture,' UCLA, (1994).
Lieven, Anatol. Pakistan A Hard country. London: Penguin, 2011.
Maleeha Hamid Siddiqi, 'Review: This is PTV- another day, another world'. DAWN Books and
Authors, (August 5 2012).http://x.dawn.com/2012/08/05/review-this-is-ptv-another-day-anotherworld/ [Last accessed: 15 June 2013].
Nadeem.F.Paracha. 'Also Pakistan III.' Dawn Dot Com Blog, ( Posted: 26 July 2012).
http://dawn.com/2012/07/26/also-pakistan-iii/ [Last accessed: 14th June, 2013].
Nasir, Agha. This is PTV...Another day, another world. Pakistan Television Corporation
Publication, 2011.
Nasr, Vali. 'Military Rule, Islamism and Democracy in Pakistan', Middle East Journal, Volume
58. No.2 B. (Spring 2004): 195-209.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Majeed, Abdul. 'Zia ruined us, make no mistake', The Express Tribune Blogs. (Posted September
28 2012).
http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/14090/zia-ruined-us-make-no-mistake/ [ Last accessed: 19th
January 2013]
Paracha, Nadeem.F. ' Of Shades and Sprees', DAWN Dot Com. (Posted: February 3 2013).
http://dawn.com/2013/02/03/smokers-corner-of-shades-and-sprees/ [Last accessed: 23th April
2013]
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Appendices: Transcribed Interviews
Interview 1: Afiya Shehrbano Zia, Feminist Researcher and activist.
Interviewed 29th April, 2013.[Interview conducted via e-mail.]
Q- Do you think television plays in Zia-ul-Haq's time were reflective of what was
happening in the country?
Not necessarily. Media was muzzled and controlled as were creative expression. So some TV
plays were simply escapist forms of mass distraction while others looked to actively delegitimise civilian politicians such as feudals and reinforce women's Muslim piety as a desirable
virtue etc. Still, I think that women dramatists and writers and comedy of course remained
subversive and infiltrated mainstream media including TV in many ways.
Q- A statement that one usually hears/ reads about the Zia era is that his regime ruined the
arts in Pakistan forever. Yet, some really good television plays came out during his regime.
What are your comments on this?
As mentioned above, I think political consciousness does not die or get wiped out as soon as you
watch TV. There was a generation of resistance too. If anything, its 10 years later that you have a
turn in pop groups like Junoon, etc where our generation starts showing signs of the influence of
Islamisation in the media. Art that was killed in its creative expression was more so cinema,
theatre and fine arts but television was still held on to by progressives as was journalism. Those
individuals resisted Islamisation and that is what made the difference. Where artists succumbed
we have seen the effects of state sponsored Islamisation, where they resisted we've seen growth
of independent creativity.
Q- Do you feel television had a role to play in accelerating the process of Islamisation
during the Zia regime? If so, how?
Of course, if you watch religion and pietism on TV all day long and constant references to
Arabic rather than local language, any consumer will start to imbibe and become culturally
affected. Thought control is through media particularly TV. We see it in the USA and Europe
and all over the world, so why would Pakistan be an exception? But its more powerful and
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f quicker if you have one exclusive channel as your source of disinformation and subject
formation. Educational institutions worked too but TV is a popular form.
Q- What kind of elements/symbols of Islamisation were used on TV?
Lots of images of Saudi Arabia, Allah hafiz, Neelaam ghar was riddled with religious trivia as if
there is no other general knowledge and naats as the only musical form and the removal of all
music. The prescribed dupatta for women newscasters, Quran lessons.
Q- Tanhaiyaan was a very popular drama in the 1980s. Yet, it seemed to have been made in
isolation from the political situation of that era. Do you think it was escapism TV or one
that was showing resistance to the Zia dictatorship?
Romantic comedy is not my definition of resistance but maybe for others. I think it was
escapism. More interesting has been the remake of it - I've only seen one or two episodes and its
incredibly conservative! The comparison may make one rethink of the earlier version as more
'liberal' than this one which moralises on how eastern girls should wear Shalwar Kameez as part
of their culture rather than jeans and the constant refrain of marriage as the ultimate project of
Pakistani girls.
Q- Despite an oppressive regime, women for example in Tanhaiyaan were shown as
independent, doing jobs, having male friends, etc. Bushra Ansari in Aangan Terha is shown
as a strong female character and does not cover her head as one would usually expect at
that time. How was that contrast allowed to exist by the regime?
Again some forms of resistance came through by virtue of the fight back by women like Sahira
Kazmi and Bushra Ansari etc and also by the broader women's movement which had by now
fought against the attempt to impose a dress code on women in 1982 at the Lahore high court and
their constant challenge to hudood ordinances and taking up cases against discriminatory laws by
human rights and WAF. All these actions put pressure on regimes to make concessions or face
revolutionary like situations and international attention.
Q- At present, there is a variety of channels and there are so many types of plays running
on sixty different channels, catering to different kinds of audiences. Back then, PTV was
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f just one channel that was seen by everybody. How was the content of television plays
crafted considering it had different types of viewership?
Wherever there is lack of choice there is ideological conformity and control over content. It is
not a coincidence that VCR culture proliferated at the time. PTV should actually just be shut
down. It has never contributed anything after 1980 that makes it worth saving and it serves no
ideological purpose because no-one watches it. Even radio Pakistan is more effective despite
being a non-visual medium.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Interview 2: Anwar Maqsood, Playwright.
Interviewed 28th January, 2013.[Interview conducted in person.] The interview has been
translated from Urdu into English.
Q- Do you think television plays in Zia-ul-Haq's time were reflective of what was
happening in the country?
Television did not come to Pakistan for entertainment. General Ayub Khan was standing in the
election and Fatima Jinnah was his opponent. Fatima Jinnah was leading (in the election
campaign). Upon this, Altaf Gauhar, Secretary of the Ministry of Information, talked to the
Japanese for establishing an education television network. The Japanese immediately sanctioned
the project and soon provided the telecast station.
That was the end of education. When Ayub Khan appeared before the nation on television, the
people say that on the one side there was this six-foot, seven inch good looking man and on the
other hand was this skinny frail woman clad in a shalwar kameez and dupatta, they all said, we
have to vote for this man. Thus, television came to Pakistan for winning an election and it was
because of this that Ayub Khan won the election. At the time the government had full control
over this medium. Before this there had been the radio which too was owned by the government.
The television telecast for five hours every day with Monday being a closed holiday. Of these
five hours, Ayub Khan was on the screen for four. After ruling for ten years, he handed over
power to General Yahya Khan, another dictator. In those days there was no morning
transmission; television telecast only in the evenings. Yahya Khan never appeared because in
intoxicated
appeared the least on television. Then came Mr. Bhutto, who also continued the martial law. He
will not appear on
His rule ended, then came democracy, then came Zia-ul-Haq. For ten years, Zia-ul-Haq really
played havoc with television. He could not fully extinguish my programmes because my most
bold programmes ran in his period one for nine weeks, another for four weeks, and so on. He
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f During Zia's martial law, the infl
Afghans are coming, the Taliban are here, Muslims are coming or the Jamaat-i-Islami. MQM
was created by General Zia-ul-Haq and as for television that was totally under Generals Zia and
Mujeeb. The latter was the Information Secretary.95
96
'Uroosa' commits suicide by drowning and her body
is taken out of the water, it is clad in a dupatta. Is a woman waking up in the morning fully
covered in dupatta? All the television newscasters and anchors continued doing their
programmes with a fully covering dupatta, but at the same time many (ground breaking) good
programmes also took place. 50-50 (a lively stage show) and Aangan Terha (a satirical sitcom)
happened in the Zia period.
with models and also others. He promoted entertainment and young people. The problem of our
country is the same as that of television. Whenever a dictator comes, he should leave after doing
his work and improving things. These people do not leave after improving things, they want to
just stay there. From here the destruction of the country and of other institutions begins. This
includes the devastation of television.
Until there was just one channel (in Zia-ul-
-minute television advert cost
200,000 rupees and PTV had 97 percent viewership. There simply was nothing else (no other
channel). When a popular play was running on television, everyone sat at home dumb founded,
there was no one out on the roads. Then in the Musharraf period there came 64 channels, the
rate of adverts on one channel was 20,000 rupees a minute while another was charging 15,000,
yet some other just 5000 rupees. However in this way the economy did not improve, the
advertising budget of companies did not increase. Whatever the ad-spend existed on (the stateowned) Pakistan Television (PTV) remained stagnant. Then the ad-spend trickled out of PTV.
P& G and Unilever started giving their advertising budgets to others. Whatever had been
95
The Information Ministry is the controlling authority of all media, especially the Pakistan Television which it
directly governs.
96
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f available for 200,000 rupees was now available for just 22,000 rupees on GEO and 25,000 on
ARY Digital.
Now the situation is that P & G, Unilever and cell-phone services advertising is also being
released to those illegal channels that are showing Indian films. Musharraf gave full liberty to the
channels: you can show dancing, you can show music as long as you do not say anything
against the army. You can criticise the civil servants as much as you want, but nothing against
the military. Even today 87 percent of Pakistan watches PTV. The reason for this is that rural
elders do not allow dish-antennas. The reason for this is that the same elders can go to their
homes to watch obscene films but do not allow their children to watch other
programming through dish antennae. There only PTV is being watched. And the rates for their
advertising remain the same.
Nowadays, according to the ratings ARY is at the first po
as they are showing Turkish plays after translating these into Urdu. GEO TV had organized a
protest against them as they were getting the plays for 50,000 rupees per episode while it costs
ten times that much for GEO to produce an episode. Now GEO also got three Turkish plays and
are playing these. Express is running four. Now Iranian plays are also arriving as these are
inexpensive. PTV cannot do this. People are saying television plays have moved much ahead,
television has moved much forward. This is not the case. Our drama used to be very good. We
used to work very hard on it: One person wrote it, we debated the casting, others rehearsed it, we
used to discuss the music
whether we just needed one instrument (Sarangi) or others.
After constantly watching Indian dramas, we see that all the story lines are the same. Just one or
two
like Humsafar - have been hits, all the others are very clichéd. All the stories and plots are
the same, yet some are hits.
Now the elections are coming and television will have a big role
both the private channels and
PTV. They (political parties) are buying channels to promoted themselves/ The anchors are
being paid hefty amounts.
offered to become the MD of PTV. I told them I would die before doing that. I become MD of
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Whatever is going on, let it be. Now the news and entertainment channels have been separated.
In the old days, entertainment just had one hour on PTV, the rest was news, followed by current
affairs and before that were the Islamic programmes.
Q- What inspired you to write Aangan Terha?
Zia-ul-Haq had closed the PIA Arts Academy. The classical dancer in the troupe was my friend.
He was not getting any
take up a cooking employment for the same amount of money that you were getting from the
PIA Academy?"
General Zia was fond of listening to songs. He would send a plane to fetch Munni Begum from
Karachi. He kept music cassettes. He was fond of Farida Khanum, but since he was on a
campaign to introduce Islam, he would say Islam does not permit music.
Q- How difficult was it to have the play on the air?
The problem was that I gave the role of a transgendered dancer to the late Saleem Nasir. Before
this play he had appeared in a play glorifying military martyrs and heroes. This was the problem.
I was told that you have put an end to the extraordinary reputation of Saleem Nasir. Therefore,
the play must be stopped. He was a great actor. After seeing him, I thought that he can even do
this. They said, close down the play. You are getting a military man who received the Nishan-iHaider the highest award to be given by the military to perform this non-sense.
Q- There is a lot of hatred against Zia in most of our newspapers, talk shows, etc. They
blame whatever is wrong with Pakistan on Zia's shoulders. How much of that time's
political atmosphere is reflected in your writing?
When the Indian magazine Sunday used to come out, its editor was M. J. Akber. He met Zia
and asked him to give me permission to write for Indian state television Dur Darshun. Satirically
Dur Darshun. He has never written anything for us. Why does
he need permission for doing so?
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Akber went back to India and wrote this in Sunday. I had a lot of problems during the Zia period.
Q. How did you manage to say what you wanted to despite these restrictions?
I did what they used to tell me because, after all, I had to write. I had a commitment with the
people. But when the play ran after being further censored, it became even worse than the
original. No dialogues were in a logical sequence. The meanings of the lines were altogether
different. And so the viewers realized that it had been censored.
Q. The characters in your play, for example in Aangan Terha, the female character is not
wearing a dupatta on her head. How was this managed?
I did not do this. In most of my plays-
Bihari girl with
a tung pajama, white kurta and dupatta. I did not create a girl which required a skirt; my plays
were not like that.
Q. While writing your characters, did you consider the limitations and restrictions in mind
or you wrote as you wanted to?
Wherever a female character may have been, in the home or the office she was wearing a scarf.
Then I would fight with them because it does not seem right. Who goes to sleep wearing a
dupatta? With the lady wearing this dupatta even the angels would not be able to approach her
in her dreams.
Q. How has your experience been under a democracy of being a writer as opposed to
writing in Zia's time, even though majority of your work was done under Zia?
The majority of my work was done in that period: Studio Dhai, Studio Paunay Teen, Show Time,
then Aangan terha, Silver Jubilee, 50 50, Show Sha.
But I had to go through hell just to write one script. I had to answer to five people as to what I
had written:
In Aangan Terha, Chaudha
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f This went on air. After it had been telecast, The General Manager called and asked what does
Q-What were the reactions of the people/audiences about Aagan Terha?
Two hundred people out of one hundred were praising it. But I stopped it. In the 12th episode, I
put the whole cast in my car and we left,
y
wanted to have it written by someone else.
Q-Can the medium of television drama be considered as a sort of visual documentation of
what Pakistan was like at that time?
All my interviews in Show sha, Show time, 50 50 are all based on the news.
Q-Being a democracy and one where there are minimal restrictions on television plays, do
you think this freedom has allowed for better and improved television dramas?
Nowadays people are writing whatever they desire. There is total freedom. For an illiterate
audience, some level of
illiterate, censorship is essential. Now such dialogues are coming out that I could not have even
dreamt of. In Sultana Siddiqu
sented. My plays are not
set in posh elitist localities. I have never left the small quarters, flats and small homes. None of
my plays have gone to America or to Spain or to Paris.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q. So the government was trying to create a new reality on television?
No, the people started buying DVDs. They stopped watching TV. This is Islam, These are
Taliban, these are Muslims. A country that even imports a ping pong ball from China and sewing
needles from Korea, has made the nuclear bomb. The cinemas were not closed, they changed by
themselves. No films were being made. I am not sure they were against the film or against the
songs and dances
Without songs, you can have a sermon, not a film.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Interview 3: Nazish Brohi, Activist and researcher.
Interviewed 26th March, 2013.[Interview was conducted in person, recorded and transcribed.]
The interview has been edited to keep relevant material.
Q- Do you think television plays in Zia-ul-Haq's time were reflective of the society at that
time?
If you try to use television as a medium for understanding the Zia years, what you'll have to
explore more than what is on the screen is what is not. So I think you will have to explore the
silences more than the actual scripts and visuals themselves. So because within the television
content, there was a significant amount of subversive text that got across so people had managed
to bring about some...while staying within the system, if I give you an example let's say Sahira
Kazmi who was at PTV at that time and did some fairly subversive kind of things. The way
people did it is, there was another producer at PTV Ather Viqar Azeem. Now they were state
employees because it was state owned television but their personal politics was very different
and in clash with the Zia regime so they would do things like..Okay when benazir came back so
finally PTV said Okay, don't have people saying how good she is or anything like that but if you
want to show it you can show it as a news item. So, Ather Viqar Azeem sahab decides to show
the visuals of Benazir coming back but in the background, is playing very revolutionary music of
the hope is here the..kiran nikal aye (the ray of light is here) you know. So, you know, things like
that they use which got all these messages in a very subtle form and I think that subtlety is now
lost to television. But at that time because there was really no choice- the kind of repression there
was- these are the kind of tactics that they used. We had this phenomenon called Alamgir who
sang fantastic music but you know this was the time of the red threat, anti- Russia, anti
communism pro Us whatever, and he picks up his guitar and he goes and sings a song in Spanish
and everyone thinks it is a wonderful song and he is talking about revolution is called Guantana
mera you know which is the song of the Cuban liberation movement of Che Guevra and he
singing this song on PTV but nobody understands it. So again like I said you know there are all
these sub texts that you can understand of how people manage to get their message across but for
that there was a huge amount of subtlety required even for people to understand it so if you look
at television programmes of that time, you look at 50-50, some of it was very, very political- the
kind of things, the discussions they had. The kind of one-liners that Anwar Maqsood sahab came
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f up with so they said a lot of things between the lines but it was not overt. So Ithink by necessity
the television audience at that time was also far more sophisticated because they had to be. They
knew they needed to be in order to pick up on it, they needed a degree of sophistication. Even the
people who had TV, you know you had that phenomenon that people would get together to
watch TV and people found their pocket of subversion. For example if you look at art, the first
art gallery that came up in Islamabad Rohtas positioned itself outside a slum and exhibited nude
paintings. Now at this point of time if I go to an exhibit where there are nude depictions of
women, I won't find it non conformist in fact I would find it very decadent or self indulgent at
least but at that time there was a politics to it. So what I'm saying is that when context changes,
the political weight attached to it also changes. So agar iss wakt jesay aik reworked play chal
raha hai, Aangan Terha toh woh toh zia kay time pay aya tha na jab original hua tha. (At this
time, there is a reworked play Aangan Terha which had originally come out during Zia's time.)
Right now, you can look at Aangan Terha as an urban, lower middle class muhajir ethos and its
problems whether you know its bureaucrats working, the lower middle class trying to make it,
educated class, whatever. But if I am to watch it during Zia's time, I think what would strike me
more at that time would be Saleem Nasir, not only because he was such a superb actor but also
because in Zia's time when performing arts have been banned, so here is this man who is on
television saying that I am a dancer who got thrown out of a job and now I am reduced to the
status of a servant and because he seems overtly effeminate, there is another challenge issued
through such things for instance is that of sexuality in a society which just wanted to pretend that
sex didn't happen and here he is talking about an alternative form of sexuality very clearly.
However, if we see it now, that context won't emerge. It wasn't a movement but it raises very
difficult questions at that time. Now at this time, you can just see him in a very different light. So
I think it is also the time frame within which those actions happened. Again like right now, I
know it is a very liberal elite thing to do but because you have this return to the roots movement
so there is a celebration of qawwali. It is a new form of religiosity that allows you to not be the
Taliban and yet enjoy the music and the drink that comes with it and feel still very connected to
your roots so it is a kind of an urban elite class revivalist strand, of course there is a sufist trend
which has been there long ago but the point is if you go back to the Zia years, you look at the
fact k Aziz miaan qawaal was based in Lahore. So here is this man, who became what he became
because of one qawwali and that Qawwali is Main Sharaabi. So if you hear the words, they are
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f very basic. There is no high literary phenomenon there but it appeals to people and not only did
he sing it, he sang that qawwali every time he performed for at the minimum, an hour...So I
mean, again a huge political challenge and if you hear the lyrics of main sharaabi (I am an
alcoholic) at one level, it is a very decadent, you know this guy is singing I am an alcoholic, I am
an alcoholic but if you follow the lyrics they are extremely powerful and they offer that political
resistance and the fact that he became what he became during the Zia years was because
hundreds and hundreds of people would go and they would not leave till he was finished singing
main sharaabi. So I think it is important to locate what was happening back at Zia's time and
read around the television plays. So aik toh aap kay television plays itself thay (on one hand, you
had the television plays themselves) and then what was not said, what was said in other contexts,
what was said in other ways. All these people who were PTV producers had different political
ideologies. They were progressives magar woh kehtay toh unhay woh nokri say nikal detay aur
agar nokri say nikal bhi detay toh (but if they had said anything, they would have lost their jobs
and even if they did) they had no other channel to turn to so they worked within the system and I
think within the system they were able to somehow find that idiom in which people connected
what they were saying between the lines. Now all subtlety has been lost to television and jitni
dumbing down of TV content hua hai utna hee dumbing down of people's receptors bhi hua hai.
(the amount of dumb-ing down of TV content is equal to the dumb-ing down of people's
receptors.) Now they don't watch television for the political nuances, now they watch it for
mindless entertainment.
Q-To what extent was television a vehicle for Zia to promote Islamisation which was
perhaps the crux of the his regime?
Of course he did. So, of course they used it as prime vehicle because even the means of
communication were limited at that time so they used television. I think there is a definite
connection between what they call the soft Islamisation such as the covering of women's heads
with dupattas even when you had a sleeping woman in a drama, which had no logic to it.
However, having said that there was not much logic to it, there is also a connection to be made
with their wider...I mean, now I am talking about the purely political side of it and that is, I
personally don't think that it was possible for Zia to do what he did in Afghanistan in terms of
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f whether its developing support of the mujahideen such as being pro US such as the support of
the overthrow of the Najibullah regime and so on and so forth. I don't think he could have done
that had he not done what he did on PTV. I think there is a definite direct connection not just
because he was using PTV to say that these are the good guys or these are the bad guys but
because it creates receptors. I think a society that has no choice but to give up on its own culture
but also on its own identity. A society that hangs onto its identity is not open to, well one that
hasn't developed a sense of identity is not open to those other kind of influences that erode your
identity for instance...Sindh has a Sufi culture so until you vilify that culture, until you get rid of
that Sufi inclination, you won't be able to substitute it for something else. So, that is what he
managed to do with television such as if you look at the Taliban even today, sab say pehlay toh
unhon nay attacks jo tribal areas kay andar musicians thay sab say pehlay unko maar rahay thay
(they first attacked the musicians in the tribal areas) They killed musicians or they drove them
out of that area, they bombed schools to make sure kids aren't going to school anymore and
extremely importantly they bombed the dargaahs so...you'll find a list of shrines that they
attacked. So first of all they attacked people's cultural moorings, that's something that makes you
hang on to your identity and only after that do they kind of expect them to forcibly conform to
the Taliban ideology. So I dont think it is really a matter of did he allow women to go on
television...and what state of dress or undress did they have to go in but how did he create the
acceptability in this region which has a strong past of Sufi mooring so within that how did he
create the space for wahabiism to take root because they didn't actually make people wahabi on
gun point right, what they did do was create this increasing contraction in social spaces so I think
they condensed and they contracted and they shifted the cultural identification and the mooring
of Pakistan and TV is one of the ways they did it. you know that this is us. That the short shirt
clad sahira kazmi who was an architect in the 70s deciding between two men Shakeel and Rahat
Kazmi was not the real Pakistan. The real Pakistan is the woman who is draped head to foot and
is sitting on the ja namaz waiting for God to get her justice. Since then, a lot of things have
happened. Since then, I think market has become a huge..it is the primary player so they become
more and more rubbish. Now this recent play on Hum TV humsafar, now I can't imagine a more
conformist play.it was an extremely weak depiction, fell into every trope and stereotype of the
wronged Pakistani woman waiting for divine justice and then...
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q- Do you think Tanhaiyaan was made in isolation of sorts?
It is also reflective of our upper middle class and upper class, they are like that to date. They also
live in this oblivious disconnected... I know so many people jin kay ghar akhbar naheen ata.
(who don't get a newspaper at their house.) If you watch it at Zia's time, here you have this girl
becoming this strong woman who is earning her own way, you know a career woman which
already was already the frowned upon. Then you have, for me, more interestingly her childhood
best friend is a man who walks in and out of her house iss may koi issue hee naheen hai. (there is
no issue in it.) He comes, he hangs out with the servant, hangs out with the sister, they are going
off for drives alone and you know how is that happening in the Zia years? When you would see
it at that time, you would see it differently because you are just like, how is that possible? At that
time, it was still political, very political.
Q-Did creativity flourish more in television drama under the Zia years as compared to
today when there are very little, if any, restrictions?
Yes, it is true. I think Pakistan may toh itna clearly naheen nazar ata but if you look at the Latin
American context, it becomes very clear. Their strongest literature, their strongest art and their
strongest counter culture movements emerged all during dictatorships. I think the Zia years did a
lot for a lot of forms of art for example if you look at feminist art at that time, they did itna
subversive kaam jo aaj, ab naheen hota... because woh jo may aap say pehlay subtlety ki baat kar
rahi thee, I think aap kay paas koi choice naheen hoti na uss time pay. Yeh choice toh hai that
you disconnect from everything and go sit in a corner but not in terms of..like what you had to
say, you had to say it very skilfully to be able to say it and I think repression brings out
something. Some form of solidarity in which you feel some sort of connection with the average
person on the road because we don't have those forms of connections..because if I met some
random man on the road, it isn't like we speak the same language, or we are the same ethnicity
toh hamara sense of connection naheen develop hota because it is a diverse country unlike many
other European countries which are very hegemonic and very insular...but when you are under
dictatorship, you do have that shared sense of repression that may bhi pis rahi hoon woh bhi pis
raha hai...I think shared suffering brings people together.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q- Although Musharraf was a dictator, he gave a lot of liberty to television. What are your
comments on this?
He did and we have to give credit where its due. National art gallery bana di uss nay aur yeh TV
kay channels khol dye magar but it was very much a part of his "moderate enlightenment"whatever the hell that means- but what it also did was that it created this abnormality I think in
Pakistan and its now in Pakistan perfectly normal to be socially liberal and politically
conservative and this what Musharraf has done to us before that you were either liberal or you
were not. So when you were liberal, you had liberal politics, you had a liberal society, you had a
liberal outlook, so you were a liberal or you were not. But now you have an urban elite, and not
just elite, but urban middle class as well who are very socially progressive but very politically
conservative and that is the legacy of Musharraf kay uss nay siyaasi jamaton ko nikal kay phaink
dya, jamat-i-islami aur MMA ki hukoomat ko lay kay hamaray sar kay ooper bitha dya so
Musharraf had highly retrogressive conservative politics in terms of the political sphere but with
in the social sphere woh sharaab bhi peetay thay, woh kutoon kay sath tasweer bhi khichwatay
thay, woh cigarette ya cigar kay sath bhi khichwatay thay, unhon nay channels bhi khol dye aur
seaview pay checking bhi band kara di and you know Zia era may sunnay ko ata tha kay couples
ko rok kay kehtay thay kay nikah nama dikhao, that all was finished so we didn't see any of that
so he made sure these things didn't happen. So I think he created a lot of space for social
progressivism, for us to be socially progressive and liberal but he screwed us on the political end.
and now Taliban ka itna bara issue hogaya hai ab Pakistan may, Swat kay andar, I have been
working in Swat for ten years. Everybody says ANP is never going to get any votes because look
at what ANP did in Swat, look at what PPP did in Swat...rubbish. Anything that has happened in
Swat today is directly a result of the MMA government because the MMA government ruled
there from 2002 to 2005 so that was the incubation time when Fazlullah entire movement was
strenghtened7 and by 2006 they were in a power to take over the entire state. That entire
nurturing all happened during Musharraf's time. And we bought into this liberal dictator, if
Pakistan is in a mess today, it isn't because of social conservatism, it is because of political
conservatism.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Interview 4: Sahira Kazmi, Actor, director, producer.
Interviewed 23rd April, 2013.[Interview was conducted over the phone, recorded and
transcribed.] The interview has been edited to keep relevant material.
Q- Does it make a difference to television drama if the country is being governed by a
dictatorship or a democracy?
Well, the media now do whatever they want, there is no censorship and there are no rules as
semiyou were supposed to follow. I for instance used to bug/circumvent the system where my plays
particularly dealing with women's rights were concerned. You can subtly get away with it
otherwise it is
anyone and they became popular, so that was that. But Yes, Dos and Don'ts are there in every
government.
Q- Was television drama used as a medium to promote Zia's ideology in the country?
sation took place in
everything. Socially, everyone was constantly reminded that they were a Islamic nation. As TV
was government property , it did use TV for that but not necessarily through plays but through
other programmes such as discussions, religious, Islamic programs, etc.
Q- Did actresses always have to cover their heads with a dupatta?
People are confused about this, let me tell you that this dupatta issue was actually triggered
dupatta
head. It would be unrealistic to show a modern educated woman from a major city with a dupatta
on her head where as it would be okay if someone from a smaller town was being depicted.
kameez with dupatta.
One thing which we have seen on television is that there has to be a full stop to vulgarity. And I
think in a third world developing country you have to be a little careful about what you are
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f showing and doing on television because remember that majority of our people are not educated.
Television is coming into our homes which parents, children and grant parents are watching ,
where as for films you have to go outside.
Q- What do you have to say about Tanhaiyaan in relation to the Zia regime?
Tanhaiyaan was made for entertainment and as you see in many other genres such as romantic
levant.
Q-How was the content for plays decided when there was only channel given that there was
a wide audience?
PTV was based on BBC, where our policy was information with entertainment : infotainment.
The point is that there was a lot of diversity and everything from romantic comedies to serious
plays to socially relevant plays to entertainment, so there was a variety and a lot of diversity and
that was great. But there were people like me who wanted to do serious stuff and we did that,
everything from Ashfaq ahmed, Bano Qudsiya, Haseena Moin. We tend to blame our audiences
educated otherwise you give them any kind of play and they will watch it. But you just to make
sure that the message goes through without lecturing. With different characters, you will reach
the audience.
Q-You said in the beginning that despite the regime which was so restrictive, so much
creative work came out and now that we have so much freedom, do you feel there is
creativity in our dramas today?
. Soap opera style, very artificial, very
superficial and are only going on and on about the oppressed woman and the husband is a
womanizer, having two wives and three girlfriends. It is indeed a reality but it is tragic instead of
showing a way out or some positivity for women/girls, we have put them back in the same
position we were fighting to come out of over the last thirty forty years and I find it so sad that
in times when it was so difficult to show that, we did but now that we that we have the freedom
we have pushed the woman back socially in the same institution.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q- Do you feel that the popularity of old PTV dramas also had to do with the fact that
there was only one channel and people didn't have much of a choice?
No, when I did Zebunissa there were five to six channels and there were Indian films available
also. None of the advertising sector is going to put ads in a play which is a flop. And the plays
which became popular had more ads put into them. A that was not glamorous with unknown
people in it and it still managed to be a success. This theory was proven wrong. By all means do
such plays once in a while but not every single one. There should be diversity and variety. Show
us different parts of the society, why always this bashed woman. We need to move forward,
show things that are socially relevant and also educate our people towards better things. Talk
about different aspects of society/life that we just keep quiet about.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Interview 5: Farooq Sulehria, Journalist.
Interviewed 3rd March, 2013.[Interview was conducted via skype, recorded and transcribed.]
Q-To what extent does the political atmosphere of a country affect its television?
It depends what sort of a country we're talking about: Is it a democracy or is it a dictatorship or is
it a weak democracy?
Number two, what sort of television are we talking about? Is it a state run television or is it a
commercial model we are talking about?
We cannot generalise about how the political situation of a country will affect (its television)
because countries are different. We have strong political systems such as those of Sweden and
England, and we have a weak democracy as in Sri Lanka. We have a situation like Saudi Arabia
where we don't have any freedom at all and then we have a situation like Pakistan where we have
periods of democracy, every now and then. If we are talking about Pakistan, of course, different
periods have been different. Like during dictatorships, we had speech censorship especially in
the case of Pakistan Television. But let us talk about General Zia's period. This was the most
brutal time for television. The level of censorship was unheard of and ever since, we have not
witnessed such level of censorship.
In that period, TV was subjected to a strong and extensive level of censorship: Every word, every
TV play script had to pass through a long process before it aired. And yes there were definitely
very clear cut orders by the martial law regime that everything should be Islamised on PTV.
From news, to other cultural programme
een to introduce programmes before these started.
In those days, whosoever appeared on TV was a Pakistani celebrity, there were only a select few
who appeared on TV. Even these announcers were very recognized faces. Then there was
Mahtab Rashidi who was one of them. She refused to cover her head (when asked by the rulers
and administration. This was quite a widely-known and infamous incident. She quit her TV job.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Such was the stress on Islamisation on television. So definitely there was a clear cut agenda to
Islamise Pakistan television on part of the political leadership of the country, or rather the
regime.
Q-Do you think the censorship affected the creativity of the plays?
Yes, in the first place, many writers were banned. Very simply, the door was shut on creativity.
When you ban an important section of the intelligentsia from writing or appearing on your
the leading writers of the times. On the other
hand, those who were given a free hand included Ashfaq Ahmed, Bano Qudsia, and other right
wing writers who openly promoted Islamisation...For creativity you need to have an atmosphere
where you can write without fear, where an enabling atmosphere exists.
At the same time, in the 1980s a number of very good plays were also presented. In fact, we
have seen the making of very good literature and poetry during periods of autocratic rule, as in
Czarist Russia. Our own country in the Zia period, we saw the creation of some very good
literature both prose and poetry. In fact, in Pakistan we have usually had an atmosphere of
repression. And we have had Faiz, Jalib, Ahmed Faraz and innumerable such poets, writers,
playwrights throughout these periods.
While a concrete statement is hard to give on whether or not creativity flourishes more under
oppression or not, usually creativity flourishes in an environment of freedom. We know what
Faiz wrote and what Jalib wrote but maybe there were many others like myself, who saw that
Faiz was sent to Jail or that Jalid was being beaten up on the street and thus they sit quietly
because of fear.
There were four journalists whose names too you would not have heard and who continue to be
alive today, poor souls
punished with sentences of lashings by whips during the Zia period.
These are Nasir Zaidi, Iqbal Jafri, Masoodullah Khan, and one who is working in GEO News
these days, Khawar Naeem Hashmi. Now no one even takes their names (in spite of their
sacrifices). Additionally, numerous journalists were sent to jail. So there were many people who
joined Zia, merely because of their fear that they too would be subjected to Draconian
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f punishments like lashings if they opposed the regime. So, creativity is definitely affected and
creativity on television was definitely affected to a great extent.
Q-What do you have to say about Tanhaiyaan? It seems to have been made in complete
isolation.
I don't think it was a great play. It was an average play. In fact, given the level of the great plays
produced by our PTV it was not even an average play by comparison. Those written by Munoo
bhai and produced by MNH. I mean, there is a long list. There was this elderly writer, who has
now passed away, Mirza Adeeb. I clearly remember reading an interview of his when this
Tanhaiyaan was playing. It was truly a hit production , undoubtedly so, and I will tell you a
personal experience, but first let me quote from Mirza Adeeb.
Bursting with anger, he wrote , Haseena Moin has made drama into a play thing, something for
mere fun. This was the headline of the newspaper feature.
If you were able to check the newspapers of the period, this interview was published as a cover
story. It was in the days when Urdu newspapers still had a literary page. It is not that critics were
not available in those days. Critics were present then as they are today. Its just that anyone who
is decent (and upright) does not usually find a place in the mainstream. It was a period in which
on the one hand there was great repression in the co
I myself was raised in Sargodha, a city which saw protest marches against General Zia every
second day. Even as children we would participate in these protests.
Once when the late Benezir Bhutto returned, she started a campaign, I forget its name. The
ten thousand of us had gathered. It was a big crowd in Sargodha which is still a small city and
was much smaller in those days. The police opened live firing; the bullets could have hit anyone.
There knew that there was no accountability on them. Many people were injured. So this was the
atmosphere of the period. On the other hand there was an ascendant middle class. For the first
time a large social change was coming after their rise thanks to the employment opportunities
created by the Pakistan Peoples Party. The other source of income that brought virtual overnight
prosperity was the Afghan war. Some earned huge drug moneys and others capitalized through
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f sale of arms and ammunition. Some profited through their connections with the military. An
army job itself became a very lucrative employment. So there was an emergence of a middle
class.
So you see the population of Pakistan at the time was about 50 million..How many of these
possessed a television? Very few. Television was not so common in those days. These days you
find televisions in every home even in villages if they have electricity. In those days half of
Pakistan had no electricity. Of the other half that had electricity, few had televisions. I remember
that in our locality only three or four had televisions and the others went to their homes to
watch. Perhaps the TV arrived in our home in 1984. So you need to keep this (context) in mind.
It is the middle class that writes in periodicals. The poor do not even have bread to eat and as
for the peasants, they are, in any case, illiterate. In fact about 70 percent of our population cannot
read anything.
So all the discourses are very much middle class oriented and have been initiated or developed
by the middle class.
So to say that Tanhaiyaan was so great, it was this or it was that is misleading. One should
always see who is making the claim. So this Tanhaiyaan was popular with the middle class
because it was a skit. It was not showing any (social) problem, nor giving any solution. The
country has 15 million problems. There is no democracy, right. One most terrible development is
this phenomenon of Shia killings. Karachi is a daily battlefield. Most of these problems, were
sown in Karachi at that time. A time when Karachi was going through all sorts of problems,
Haseena Moin who lived in Karachi could only see the psychological problems of a
middle/upper middle class family about whom she wrote.
At that time such immense Urdu and Sindhi literature was being produced, we were writing the
poetry of resistance and revolutionary literature. Nadeem F Paracha was a part of that movement
at that time. So many periodicals and so many columns were published. I still remember. And
when the country was being taken apart, this Haseena Moin and Marina Khan and what is her
name, Shahnaz Shaikh
they were all very pretty. The play became popular because the middle
class wanted escape and Tanhaiyaan was offering escape. I mean, there are these innumerable
. So what happens?
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f There is this immense marketing drive behind such popular things. You set up a standard that
such and such film is the best or that writer is the best, but this does not mean that the
superlative standard is correct.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Interview 6: Mahtab Rashdi, TV anchor, Educationist.
Interviewed 21st March, 2013.[Interview was conducted in person, recorded and transcribed.]
Q-How did you come to television?
I first started on radio, then I became a teacher and during that time I also did some programs on
television.
Q-What was it like working during Zia ul haq's time?
It was very suffocating, when you don't have the liberty to say what you want. Live programs
were totally banned except for the news including radio plays, tv programmes and much of it
was scripted. The content was verified and restriction were placed. Certain words were even
omitted from newspaper articles which left blank spaces in the paper. There was only channel at
that time (PTV) which was monitored by the government and was monitored heavily. As far as
the head coverings are concerned, they were limited to newscasters, moderators and television
anchors. When I was asked to cover my head, I refused to comply as it was my decision and thus
I was banned from TV. I didn't appear on TV for 8 years and when I did not wear the head scarf
because I wanted to work on my own terms. Our whole social fabric was destroyed, values were
forgotten, tolerance was finished while religious extremism flourished, all of this was started
during Zia's time financed by the Americans.
Q-How important do you think is the government's role in controlling television?
Currently even our media is playing a dubious, whoever gives them the money, they sing their
tunes. I think there's a lot of responsibility on the media to be fair as they do play important roles
in revealing truth to the people often.
Q-What was the difference working in a democracy?
Restrictions were indeed taken off and you could work like a normal human being.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q-What do you have you say about Musharraf's time where media boomed although he
was a dictator?
Initially people were in his favor because he took over from democratic government which
damaged the country. His early does brought hope, he was promising and brought positive
change to the society but as soon as the elections took place, he also lost his way. He had
innovative ideas, facilitating private channels was of them which started flourishing during his
time.
Q-Do you think our drama needs censorship to some degree?
Yes, I do to some extent there should be. We should be careful about what we are showing to the
people, if you're showing too much violence then it's not good for your society.
For example, when we talk about women empowerment and also show insensitivity towards
women in our programs, it actually perpetuates crimes rather than curbing it. Reenactment
programs is one among many such shows.
Q-Are the story lines of our dramas affected by what's happening in society or are they
unrealistic?
The dramas that you are particularly referring to take you to a completely different world where
nothing is wrong. On the other hand, the plays being showed currently are quite realistic and
sometimes more realistic than necessary, this should be balanced. Crime and violence should
particularly be handled more carefully?
Q-Do you think creativity is at its best during times of oppression or when there is freedom
of expression?
Yes, it does happen at times. In west also, we can see that the best literature was created during
the world wars. Similarly, oppression sparks resistance where you find different and innovative
ways to tackle the problem at hand. Giving my example, this one time when I was addressing a
crowd at a function where a governor from zia's time was present, I recited verses from Shah
abdul latif bhittai's poetry which was infact poetry of resistance.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q-Do you think that drama could be a form of visual representation depicting accurate
details of a historical period?
Yes, you would surely get it right especially the ones being produced currently because they
sometimes actually go to the actual location in consideration instead of using sets. Another thing
is that the script has to be strong to deliver the essence of the message along with good direction
and acting.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Interview 7: Sultana Siddiqui, CEO at Hum TV.
Interviewed 1st March, 2013.[Interview was conducted in person, recorded and transcribed.] The
interview has been edited to keep relevant material.
Q-Can you tell me a little about how it was to work during Z
problems did you face?
When I joined in the (early) 1970 s, the atmosphere was quite liberal as were the policies. There
was little censorship; we just did self-censorship. As soon as the Zia-ul-haq period arrived, he
started politicising everything. There could be no mention of democracy, or of Bhutto. There was
the covering of the head completely with a dupatta and talk of making everyone a Muslim
instantly. Because of this creativity was stifled. When one is so restricted, this is bound to
happen. Before when we did comedy, we did it vigorously; now if someone even lightly
mimicked Zia, the director was fired. It was not just a simple dictatorship, it was a total martial
law.
Q-But even in Z
like Aagan Terha and
Tanhaiyaan...
See, in those days, there was just one TV service; today when the same Tanhaiyaan was remade,
no one saw it in the same way. Good plays were produced in those days, their cultural aspects
were appropriate. After that, no similar work could be produced.
Q- Was it because there was no other entertainment and just one TV channel?
Yes, we had to watch those (plays and programs); one odd from amongst these was a hit. Today
we have so many plays that if any one of these comes out ahead, it really makes waves and
becomes a great hit.
Q-Coming back to my question, how do you think the political atmosphere affects TV
plays?
It (the political atmosphere) does not affect plays these days; it used to affect in the Zia period.
Ever since the private TV channels have come out, the policy has also become very relaxed and
liberal, unless there is something immoral; now everyone has their own ethics. You cannot show
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f someone consuming alcohol, or show a lot of skin; otherwise there is no censorship; the little
that there is, should exist.
Q-All the same the censorship laws exist?
Yes, definitely there are, PEMRA is there, but the laws that exist should be there.
Q-Musharraf was a dictator but he gave the media a lot of liberty. Many private channels
opened during his period; why was this?
I am not in favour of dictatorship, but Zia-ul-Haq was a big hypocrite. Musharraf was not a
hypocrite. Zia was insecure and was caught in the clutches of molvis.
Q-But there were no such restrictions during the Musharraf period?
Today, today in comedy programs you can even mimic the president and the PM; just see how
much freedom there is. Where you have so many news channels on which only the most terrible
news is telecast and which consider only the brutal and bloody to be news, the few entertainment
channels that there are provide a relief.
The good thing that has happened is not just with respect to the plays , but now there are
different channels in Pakistan like (the cooking) Masala or 360 fashion. This is a positive change
in Pakistan for its soft image. This taboo that used to exist that men cannot cook has now been
reversed. People consider it an honour to be on such shows: bureaucrats, doctors
and even the
American Consul General. This is a great thing that through entertainment our girls have
started learning culinary art as an art form per se (in their homes) that they used to go and learn
elsewhere; this art of gourmet cooking has now been popularized.
Q-Do you think that drama as a medium is a true cultural representation of our society or
is it a projected reality?
I believe that the television drama does truly represent the society; it depicts the reality of the
society as it should be presented. Only then it becomes popular. Because the closer that the
viewers feel to the issues in the story that is unfolding close to them in their homes and
surroundings
the more interest they take in the play. Seeing such a play, one can feel the
problems and issues.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q-So do you think that the plays made during the Zia period were a visual documentation
of that time? If someone was looking at those plays, could they tell what was going on?
The plays that were showing in Zia
retended about...
pretended to ignore , as we did not do political stuff. The romance too could not be shown
openly; we would say that even a husband could not be touched which was quite abnormal but
true.
Q-These days TV drama, especially HUM TV dramas are based on novels . How do you
decide the content when you are making a TV play?
We look at the issues in society. We also consider what is acceptable to society, what it is doing.
For instance, zindagi gulzar hai. Before it was assumed that there should be glamour in a TV
play but this play had zero glamour, but had a very strong issue: It is the case of a strong
personality of a young woman that we want to see. Either we want to see a very weak woman
who is always abused or one who is very rich and evil.
Now we have the freedom to present whatever character we have chosen in its fullest vigour.
Earlier we used to take care in doing everything. It is because of this newly found freedom that
we are progressing greatly.
Q-So all of the content that you develop is based on the society? And why do you go with a
novel which has already been written instead of going with an original script?
Mostly we do this because the content that is based on the normal becomes popular. It should not
be difficult (to follow). Otherwise we have done detective plays and horror also which were not
successful. Only the content which we take from society is successful, whether it is suspense,
thrill, love, and female oriented. We see a lot of things as long it does not drag.
‫ﻭﻭ‬ ‫ﻭ‬ A k i f Q-Some of the dramas being shown, perhaps not on your channel, depict the issues of
prostitution, extra marital affairs, so do you think a little bit of censorship is required or
are they fine?
In my opinion, all of these themes exist in society, that is why we are discussing these and their
good and bad points. However, we should not encourage the negative and the end result/
message should be positive.
Q-Do you think our television has come a long way: before there were restrictions and
people were struggling to get their message across?
Very much so. But the one fact that remains is television has consciously or unconsciously
influenced people which is a good thing. Even if they go forward, they also stop a bit (to reflect).
We cannot totally associate these things with the West. As you have referred to extra marital
affairs, these too are an issue of every second home and is increasing day by day. I do not
encourage this.
So do you think that creative liberty is at its peak these days
i.e. from M
or just before that? So what was it like
?
We had liberty even before but now it is much more. When Benazir (Bhutto) came to power, we
received much more freedom. However, because the atmosphere was that of (the state-run) PTV
they (the management) did not like too much freedom that was good in one way.
I remember a play of mine Yeh Zindagi in which the issue of halala was depicted for the first
time. I had received the approval but when the government changed and Mr. Nawaz Sharif came
to power I was told that I could not do it. Whenever the governments change there is quite a bit
of fluctuation in the policy.
In the play on Marvi that I did, the issue of karo kari (honour killing) was raised.
.

Television Drama and Military Rule in Pakistan By Ayesha Tahira Akif

Transcription

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