PESHAWAR: Traders on Tuesday criticised the local police for detaining Eid card sellers on charges of selling vulgar and obscene cards. Qasim Hasrat, former president of the Frontier Printers and Publishers Association, told Daily Times that the shopkeepers were being harassed by the police in the name of a drive against selling vulgar Eid cards. He demanded the provincial government stop police from arresting Eid card sellers, as their business had nothing to do with obscenity. Zafar Khattak, Markaz-e-Tanzeem Tajiran provincial information secretary, said that the police took action against the shopkeepers under pressure from the local Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leaders. He said some incompetent MMA advisors to the provincial government were making the party unpopular among the masses. Mr Khattak said the shopkeepers sold items according to the customers' demand but the MMA workers called the phrase Eid cards inscribed with "I love you" as vulgar. He said the harassment of traders would affect their business and no one would invest in the province.
However MMA leaders differed from the traders' representatives, saying the shopkeepers had sold vulgar Eid cards. Haji Ehsanul Haq, MMA's Peshawar district secretary general, told Daily Times that people voted for the MMA to purge obscenity and vulgarity from society. He said that the drive against obscenity was reflecting the wishes of the masses which had annoyed shopkeepers.
| One might ask why the masses are buying the vulgar cards if they don't want them? But we're talking about Peshawar, where the phrase "I love you" is considered vulgar, so I won't bother asking. |
|