Taking note of the outrage over the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s decision to ban the film ‘Joyland’ a week before its release in Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has formulated a committee to review the complaints against the film.
A notice was issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, which bore a tag marking it as ‘most immediate’. Titled “Committee to deliberate on complaints against the Urdu film Joyland”, it included a list of members who would formulate the committee.
The committee members include the minister for political affairs and economic affairs and law and justice chairperson, minister for information and broadcasting, minister for communications, minister for board of investment, minister for information technology and telecommunications, adviser to the PM on Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) chairman.
The committee was tasked with considering the complaints against the film being ‘against the social and moral norms’, and to recommend follow-up actions in a report due by Tuesday (today).
The film was banned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting a week before it was due for release in Pakistan, over accusations that it does not meed ‘moral standards’. Interestingly, the censor board had cleared the film for a nationwide release in August of this year, before reneging on its decision on Sunday.
Previously, Joyland won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes Film Festival, a prestigious film festival. It is Pakistan’s official submission to the Oscars and has won at London Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Cairo International Film Festival among others.
