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May 10, 2005
Anything that hurt India was considered kosher: Pakistan cracks down on pic piracy
"So why didn't the authorities clamp down on the pirated Indian video tapes?" the Beeb asks of entrenched video piracy in Pakistan. "Nighat Said Khan, a leftwing women's activist and social worker, points to... why the government looked away as Indian movies started taking root with the Pakistani audience. "General Ziaul Haq's regime was an extremely oppressive one—a cultural nightmare... One of its key policy objectives was to keep people indoors. In Zia's orthodox outlook, any form of entertainment in a public place—especially where genders could mix—was against Islam." ... The cultural policy that allowed pirated Indian movies to proliferate also had political connotations. "I am sure that.... allowing piracy of Indian films was considered a smart act of industrial sabotage by the Pakistani policy makers," says Ameed Riaz... head of EMI Pakistan. "Basically, anything that hurt India was considered kosher."
Posted by at May 10, 2005 12:01 AM
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