News of the cancellation, midway, of a music programme on May 6, 2017, in Lahore’s Sozo Water Park, after threats from the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST), went viral on social media and left the district administration embarrassed.
Yet despite clear threats from PST’s Lahore Division chief Mujahid Abdul Rasool Khan, directed at the DCO and delivered to SHO Bata Pur, the district administration is still trying to play down the episode instead of confronting a direct challenge to its authority, prompting further backlash on social media.
The event, organised by Mango Musik, featured musicians from Pakistan and abroad, and was part of a larger effort to highlight and project the soft side of Pakistan.
However, at approximately 10pm on May 6, PST threatened the relevant Station House Officer (SHO) with dire consequences if the event was not halted immediately. There are audio recordings as evidence.
“There’s an obscene event taking place at Sozo Water Park which will carry on till the next evening. Who allowed for such an event to take place? Pakistan doesn’t belong to the DC’s father. This is Pakistan, not India,” said Mujahid Khan to SHO Bata Pur.
When contacted, the SHO refused to acknowledge the existence of any such conversation and stated the 11pm cut-off condition as the reason for shutting down the event.
Readers can listen to the call here:
Legal documents gathered by Pakistan Today reveal that the DC, weeks prior to the event, issued an NOC worth more than a million rupees. The NOC states that the event can go on until 11pm; in case everything goes smoothly, it will be extended till the next morning, similar to the last Mango Musik fest.
Repeated attempts were made to contact DC Lahore Sumair Ahmad Syed, but all in vain. However, DC’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Imran Maqbool, when contacted, hurriedly hung up the phone saying, “I’ll call you right back and tell you the reason for shutting down the event.”
He, too, later confirmed the 11pm deadline as the reason, but refused to acknowledge PST threats.
The Mango Musik fest was a drug-free event, the passes to the event had clear instructions inscribed on them, prohibiting the entry of any eatables, bottles, bags and obviously drugs/weapons. However, the food was available inside the venue.
There were roughly 30 people handed over to the authorities because of drug possession and inappropriate behaviour. As per sources, some people did manage to sneak in, distribute and use a few illegal substances yet were able to get away with it due to the sheer amount of people present at the venue.
The music fest was sponsored by a wide array of sponsors. When contacted about their quantum of sponsorship, or if they would continue sponsoring such events in future considering the extremist backlash, all the sponsors refused to comment.
Mango Musik itself was a bit more forthcoming.
“The financial loss is nothing compared to the cultural degradation caused by this mishap. International artists/musicians came from countries such as Germany, England and Mexico. It is unfortunate that the event had to be shut down, which caused a four kilometres long traffic jam,” said Mango Musik CEO Usama Humayun.
He was not aware of the threats till they appeared on social media the next morning.
The attendees, those who paid for tickets and lounges (priced at Rs5,000-Rs150,000), are rightfully demanding refunds since it was a commercial event and tickets worth a few million rupees were sold, that too from the company’s head office.
“Such events have always been deterred to the extent of adopting extremist measures to stop/prevent these events from being a success, or taking place at all. The recent example being of the bomb blast at Sufi Saint Lal Shehbaz Qalandar’s shrine in Sindh portrays the same ideology of extremism being a hindrance to any sort of arts and cultural event. Such events have become dogmatised over the course of our history, rendering anyone and everyone vulnerable who opts to attend such events,” stated Saleem Daud, a student of BNU participating in the event.
It is also pertinent to mention that the top cleric of PST used more than just derogatory terms to refer to the attendees, especially the female participants as it is evident in the audio clips. It is known to all those privy to the event that students from various universities such as LUMS, IBA, NUST, NCA, LSE, FCC and BNU, to name a few, attended this event, promoting arts and culture.
“Why allow an event of such magnitude in the first place only to forcefully shut it down over one fanatic’s threat,” asked Nafas Nauman, who was also a part of Google’s Tilt Brush Competition taking place at the event for the first time in Pakistan. She was accompanied by her father and younger brother, who were shocked that “the threat to use violence against the crowd at large incapacitated the government.” She and her friends bought tickets worth Rs30,000 and they were all extremely disheartened over their loss and unpleasant experience.
However, the government could not appropriately respond to this threat, casting a shade on how the state of affairs are actually being run, raising concerns over whether the initiatives taken such as Zarb-e-Azb and National Action Plan were successful or not. The government should not allow Radd-ul-Fasaad to be turned into ‘Radd-ul-Façade’.
