ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has reversed a ruling by the electronic media regulator last month to ban a television serial after receiving widespread complaints that its story was inspired by the real-life gangrape of a woman in front of her children on a major highway.
The headline grabbing act of sexual violence shocked and enraged Pakistanis, with rights activists and citizens alike demanding that the government do more to stem violence against women, including ensuring perpetrators were held accountable in a country that sees over 3,500 rapes each year.
Two men were sentenced to death last year in the motorway rape case.
Last month, citizens took to social media to voice their concerns over “Haadsa,” aired by Geo Entertainment, prompting the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to ban the drama for being “highly inappropriate, disturbing and not depicting true picture of Pakistani society.”
In a judgment published on Monday, the Islamabad High Court suspended the PEMRA order and said the drama could be aired provided the rape scene in episode five was not “repeated/broadcasted in any manner in the subsequent episodes.”
Shazia Wajahat, the producer of the drama series, said she was “grateful” people would now get to watch the whole show.
“The Honourable Islamabad has allowed our fictional character Taskeen to tell her inspirational story of getting justice for herself and for all other survivors,” Wajahat said. “Taskeen’s story is about how she became a survivor instead of a victim with resolute struggle for justice.”
Before the PEMARA ban, Pakistani lawyer Muhammad Ahmad Pansota had said on social media the survivor of the motorway rape had consulted him on legal options against the broadcast of Haadsa.
According to the Karachi-based War on Rape group, less than three percent of sexual assault or rape cases result in a convictions in Pakistan where women rarely speak out after violent assaults, fearing the shame it will bring on them and their families in the conservative Muslim country.
