2015 is the year, in which our Censor Board has banned quite many films. First it was Bollywood’s Baby (February 2015), then Bangistan (August 2015). Both movies were refused censor certificates for their objectionable content. In August 2015, another Bollywood film Phantom was banned by Lahore High Court.
The story not ends here, few Pakistani films are also banned. First the Central Borad for Film Censors (CBFC), refused to issue screening certificate to Swaarangi saying the film portrays Pakistan in a negative way. Ironically the same film was issues censor certificate without any cuts by the Punjab and Sindh censor boards. Swaarangi was released on 11th September 2015 in Punjab and Sindh, however it was not released in the Federal terrorities (Islambad, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu Kashmir) and the Cantonement areas in all the cities.
After Swaarangi, now another film Abdullah – The Final Witness has also been banned by Central Board for Film Censors (CBFC). The twisted “gol mol” logic stated by censor board is “the topic is controversial in the current security situation of the country”.
In response to this argument of CBFC, Hashim Nadeem the producer and director of the film has also written a letter to the CBFC. Interestingly it was the first major Pakistani film screened at Cannes Festival. However CBFC, considered it unsuitable for screening in Pakistan.
Here is the trailer of the film
Abdullah – The Final Witness is written, produced and directed by Hashim Nadeem. Sajid Hassan, Hameed Sheikh, Imran Abbas and Saadia Khan are in the lead roles. Hashim Nadeem is a famous fiction writer and his drama Khudda Aur Muhabbat also featuring Saadia Khan and Imran Abbas was quite famous.
Hashim Nadeem hails from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan and the film is also based on the incident of 17 May 2011 happened in Quetta. The incident is known as Kharotabad incident in which five Russian and Tajik citizen (men and women) were killed by Frontier Constabulary (FC) claimed to be as terrorist at the check post of Kharotabad. The incident was filmed by a journalist and later media aired same videos claiming all the killed ones were innocent citizen. The then Chief Justice of Pakistan took sou motto notice of this incident, and a commission was asked to prepare the Kharotabad Inquiry Report. The findings of the inquire were never made public and the case is still unresolved. A key witness of this incident was murdered in Quetta in December 2011.
Rashid Nazir Ali
