BY

Pakistanys want to be progressive, with open-mindedness, liberalism, and enlightenment as their objectives. However, there are those who perceive the advancements in a completely perverted manner. These characters detour from the clean thinking approach of culture and take the avenue of promiscuity. These upholders of permissiveness believe in enforcing their own guilt complex posture on the naive citizen, on the deprived community, and even on those who crave for lewdness with passion.

The business of pornography has increased tremendously in this country. The dealers of carnality take immense pleasure in filling up their coffers by catering to the sensual desires of those unable to control their pent-up libido. The business of pornography is in various forms, and the source of supply is both foreign and domestic. It is presumably underground and illegal, but like every thing else, the demand and supply is overt.

The ready availability of porno-movies, or "blue movies", at every other video outlet is the direct result of the frustration, anxiety, and tensed nerves faced by those unable to erect a barricade between themselves and their intimate need for carnal release. The video-shop owner is already paying the required "bhatta" to the area law-enforcers. He is therefore well protected from raids and arrests. His clientele is not limited to the vulgar-minded. On the contrary, he is providing these cassettes to the bored housewife, the blossoming teenager, the lonely out-of-towner, and the bridegroom-to-be. The video outlets get a premium for these prints and it assures them a ready market.

The easy manner in which porno movies are available at the neighborhood video shops has brought the evil right at the doorsteps in each locality. The pathetic attitude of the video outlets to hustle pornographic material alongwith children and family-oriented entertainment is highly deplorable. The sad fact is that at the video outlet, "parental guidance" is not required to rent out smut to the younger clientele (of both sexes). "Debbie Does Dallas" and "Deep Throat" are on the same plateau as "Batman Forever" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral". It seems that due to this menace, the youth of today know in graphic details more about copulation than their elders do.

The cinema houses are also used to project the blue movies. It is more prevalent in the smaller towns and out-of-the-way movie houses. Quite a few units in the major cities also indulge in this racket. This is a direct follow-up of a leniency on the part of the inspection authorities who are well paid off by the corrupt cinema owners. The general excuse proffered for providing this entertainment is the thinning queue at the box-office.

The viewing of porn is now considered a fashion. Clean entertainment has made way for erotica. This lecherous appetite has made the job of the perverted cinema houses and video stores owners real easy. To satiate the hunger for this medium, they provide all kinds of porn. The grotesque, bestial, and unnatural scenes vividly projected by the wicked impressions of debauchery find their abode deep into the minds of the viewers. Often than not, the craving to duplicate these vicious notions ooze out of the now-twisted brains resulting in tragic consequences. Rape, sodomy, blood-curdling molestation, etc are generally the result. The innocent victims of these debased morons, lose among other things, the desire even to live, spending the rest of their days as zombies out of the Twilight Zone.

There is also a flourishing market in pornographic books and other publications of erotic subjects. A visit to the old books depot can pay off in discovering the hidden treasures. There is also a growing market for medicinal concoctions brewed by quacks and quasi-hakeems, that breed of medicinal misfits who blatantly advertise on walls and bus stops. The urge to excel in the boudoir and the fear of imagined impotency makes this a very lucrative market. The need to test the fantasized virility also can lead to the immoral acts that are a curse to society.

Nowadays, newspapers have become bold in highlighting these sordid events, sometimes on the front pages. The recent award of 99 lashes each in public in Malakhand, to two persons convicted of sodomy on a young lad is a case in point. The novel punishment accorded to a Pesh Imam accused of the same charge, here in Karachi, worthies mention. According to a leading English eveninger, he was brought in to the local hospital, writhing in pain, because his captors inserted his "ship" (as the daily epitomized) into a Coke bottle, which he, apparently could not take out for fear of injury. The accusations of rape are common. From a highly publicized and internationalized incident in Karachi’s Gharibabad, to the continued rape of captive Haris by the sons and henchmen of a Wadera in the interior of Sindh, the story is the same.

Unfortunately, this vending of erotica is reprehensible and shameless. The viewing of this obscenity coupled with libidinous day-dreaming can play havoc with the rational thinking of the youth. It tends to lead towards an obtrusively diabolical nature, and the youth become mentally attuned towards committing outrageously vulgar deeds. Their innermost frustrations come out brazenly, their sensual desires flaming to an extent where decency is replaced by brutality, where ethical behavior is replaced by barbarism, and where kindness is replaced by cruelty.

The nation also suffers from the macho mentality that is the norm in nearly all parts of the society. The growing number of molestation, the abnormal increase in homosexuality, the gruesome murders, and the prevalent abuse, especially of children are all acts kindled by the obnoxious ideas derived from viewing the porno-films that are masqueraded as entertainment.

It is then apparent that since the viewer is psychologically incapable of putting up a barrier between fact and fiction, since the desire to blast out of the cocoon of morality becomes dominant upon the viewer, and since the social constraints put pressure on the confused viewer, the case for universal condemnation of the increasing influence of the blue-movies becomes more imperative.

The people connected with the film industry should take the lead and get this plague eradicated from the cinema halls. Pakistan’s film producers, distributors, exhibitors, and even the movie stars, should ostracize those demonic-minded cinema hall owners who are merchants of slut. They should have the courage to boldly isolate them from the activities of the criminally-minded members of their community. They should seriously start a campaign to end this abuse by their compatriots. They should publicize the names of the corrupt cinema owners in the news media. The purveyors of pornography are giving the film people a real bad name

The same is true with the video outlet owners. Their Association should censure, castigate, and condemn those who deal in perversion. The residents of various localities should organize vigilante groups that would put strong pressure on these stores and try to evict them out thru any means whatsoever.