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==Zia-ul-Haq II==

August 19, 2007
 
ARTICLES: The dark night

By Zubeida Mustafa

As former dictator Gen Ziaul Haq’s reign came to an abrupt end on August 17, 1988, literature and the literati too began to breathe again. The following three articles are a tribute to that restored freedom


WHEN Ziaul Haq imposed pre-censorship on the mass media, which include newspapers, magazines and books, in October 1979, this was not exactly a new experience for Pakistan. Since the country emerged as an independent entity in 1947, some form of controls had always been exercised by the powers that be. These were further tightened by Zia by requiring newspapers and magazines to submit their contents to censor officers before they were sent in for printing. This measure was said to be necessary because, as the General said in his speech announcing pre-censorship, the newspapers were ‘working against the interest of the country’ and ‘were poisoning the minds of the people’.


Weekly magazines were also affected. But for journals, especially literary journals, and books the martial law order made little difference. They had all along been controlled through different mechanisms. One was by forcing them to resort to self-censorship if they wished to escape the harsh penalties prescribed by draconian laws. The other was to ban books and journals after they had been published and were found to be ‘distasteful’ by those in power. There was yet another tool available to keep authors and poets in line: hounding them or throwing them into jail. Under Ziaul Haq, all these instruments of control were freely used. Since he had brought in an extra factor — Islamisation — in his state policy, morality and obscenity also became a pretext to crack the whip on literary writings.


The worst aspect of this issue was the self-censorship these practices induced. Writing in Zamir Niazi’s The Web of Censorship, Zohra Yusuf, the editor of the weekend magazine of Star in the 1980s, says, “In the final analysis I found self-censorship to be more insidious and corrupting than direct censorship by the government. It gave me the feeling of collaborating with the official censors, or trying to appease the internal powers — both of which are equally dehumanising experiences.”


We all know how self censorship destroys the self-esteem of a writer. We also know of the few brave souls who refused to submit to the demands of an authoritarian government calling for conformism. Who can forget what happened to Faiz, Josh Malihabadi, Fahmida Riaz, Sibtay Hasan, Habib Jalib, Shaikh Ayaz and others. Their voices were either silenced or they had to go into exile to escape the wrath of the mighty who thought they could control the pen and the thoughts of great minds.


Ziaul Haq imposed censorship in its ugliest form. He introduced religion as a key controlling force in public life. Describing Islam as a ‘complete way of life’, he ensured that anything could be deleted from the public domain by declaring it to be anti-Islam. Literature — both prose and poetry — which encourages creativity and social and cultural non-conformism has been most badly affected by this approach in Pakistan.


Thus we were taken five centuries back in time. Censorship was first introduced in history in the 16th century by the Church in the name of religion and morals at the time of the Reformation. Now the job of banning books on social, political, religious and moral grounds is exercised by governments. It is interesting to note that some books that are today considered great classics were banned in their days. Such books include James Joyce’s Ulysses, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.


Societies that care for their intellectual freedom have devised ways and means to counter censorship. In America some publishers observe the Banned Books Week every September to remind Americans not to take their freedom to choose the book they wish to read or the freedom to express their opinion for granted.