A considerable portion of our society is very concerned on increasing tendency of 'immorality' in society. I have put the word 'immorality' in inverted commas, because the words 'morality' and 'immorality' today have become utterly questionable, and also a bit of unwarranted.
Because of this concern and undesirability against these immorality, particularly openly available huge quantity of movies and pornographic materials in the cities, some elements of the society have thought it right to become proactive to prevent these things. Reportedly, the proactive people have taken the path of negotiation, persuasion and 'tabligh' to prevent the shopkeepers from trading in these movies and porno films.
Needless it is to say that all these movie CDs, DVDs and films are pirated and illegal.
These proactive actions of certain elements of elements, known as 'mullahs', 'religious extremists', 'moral police force' etc have drawn wide range of strong criticism from the other part of the society, including of course the government elements and the press and media of the country. The theme of the criticism is that, the common people, the business people are being scared and coerced in the name of 'immorality', which can be done in today's world of freedom and enlightenment.
As has already been stated, as it is already known to everybody, that these movies available in whatever media are bootleg, made in violation of copyright laws, and are totally illegal. It is also to all that, selling, trading, and renting out pornographic materials are illegal in Pakistan. "Soft image" and "enlightened moderation" etc do not make these practices legal in any way.
Today, concerns and actions of some elements for 'morality' in society have drawn quite a heated criticism. But tomorrow, if the foreign elements concerned for loss of profits because of sale bootleg versions of their works, come up with vengeance to apply the laws of protections intellectual rights and copyrights, and force the shopkeepers, of course through the concerned authorities, to pull down all these materials from their shelves and destroy/burn all of these on road, how will be the reactions of the enlightened portion of the society? This type of action has already been taken in far eastern countries, China and to a little extent in Pakistan also. Will the press, media and government functionaries be as much vocal against the implementation of copyrights laws according to the wishes of foreign elements, as they are against the requirements moral laws desired by the moralist elements of our society?
My humble suggestion is, please don't belittle or question the issues of morality in our society. We have so far miserably failed to follow legality, we have failed to establish rule of law, and now if morality is gone, then we would be in such a dangerous quandary that, the implications will be beyond comprehensions of ours.
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