The puppet in Pakistani politics
BY DAVE RILEY
Right-wing thugs disrupted and closed the showing of a political satire, Jhoot ke Palende (Bunch of Lies), at Lahore's Al-Hamra Arts Council on June 16. The play, scheduled to run from June 15-19, was being performed by the famous Pakistani puppet troupe Theatre Junction.
The play heavily criticises Pakistan's corrupt political process and featured military ruler Pervaiz Musharraf, deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto fighting each other for power, to the detriment of the country's ordinary people.
During its second performance, thugs from Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League attacked the theatre, hospitalising the show's writer, Imran Shah. The play's co-director, Shaheen Jadoon, was abducted and tortured. When he attempted to report the incident to police, he was arrested and charged with creating a disturbance and causing harm to law and order; his family have since been threatened by party workers and police.
The play was written in 1991, under the title Yesterday Once More, by Imran Aslam, the editor-in-chief of the Karachi News. The authorities banned a planned public staging of the play, to have been directed by Shaheen and Waheed Jadoon, on the grounds that it was too politically sensitive. Its eventual first performance was in Karachi two years later, directed by Shaheen.
Inspired to action by the Pakistani military's August coup, Imran Shah rewrote the play in October.
Messages of support for Imran Shah, Shaheen Jadoon and the cast and crew of Jhoot ke Palende can be sent to <REJADOON@aol.com>.