Freemuse: Pakistan: Ban on dance and music in schools

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About music censorship

NEWS

24 April 2006

Pakistan: Ban on dance and music in schools A ban has been imposed on social functions featuring dance and music, particularly Indian songs, in educational institutions, reports Daily Times In a speech at the Sialkot Institute of Information Technology and NISA Girls College on 22 April 2006, Punjab education minister Mian Imran Masood said that the government wanted to bring uniformity in education in all provinces, and in order promote patriotism a ban had been imposed on social functions featuring dance and music, particularly Indian songs, in Pakistan's educational institutions.

Source: Daily Times – 23 April 2006: ‘Ban on dance, music and Indian songs to promote patriotism’

The musicology department at Punjab University in Lahore has moved out of the university after a religious student group threatened with ‘dire consequences’

25 March 2009

Pakistan: Ban on dance and music in schools

A ban has been imposed on social functions featuring dance and music, particularly Indian songs, in educational institutions, reports Daily Times

24 April 2006

Pakistan: Punjab Assembly bans concerts in educational institutions

On 24 January 2012 Punjab Assembly passed a resolution that bans holding of 'objectionable' musical concerts in educational institutions

25 January 2012

Pakistan: Music returns to some of Pakistan's tribal areas

In parts of Pakistan’s tribal areas, music is starting to return, reported Free Speech Radio News in a well-produced radio report on 16 January 2012.

18 January 2012

Pakistan: Taliban campaign against music still in full swing

Militants bombed or torched more than a dozen music shops in the second week of November 2011 in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province and North Waziristan

16 November 2011

Pakistan: Freemuse network will document attacks on musicians

At a two day workshop held in Islamabad 12-13 November 2011 a Pakistani network was set up in support of musicians and composers at risk

15 November 2011

Pakistan: Under the censorship radar, anti-establishment songs flourish

Using humour and satire, song writers increasingly enjoy a new sense of openness and freedom of speech in Pakistan nowadays, reported Times of India

02 November 2011

Pakistan: Bomb blast destroys music and video market in Peshawar

Six people were killed and over 37 injured in a bomb explosion on 19 September 2011 that targeted a music and video CD market in Peshawar

21 September 2011

Pakistan: Broad instability spelled an end to art in Swat Valley

World Policy Institute has published an in-depth article about the development for artists in Swat Valley since 2007, written by Shaheen Buneri

14 September 2011

Pakistan: Threats from the Taliban sends sarod player into exile

Asad Qazalbash, Pakistan’s only accomplished sarod player, has left the country due to a declaration by the Pakistani Taliban that music is un-Islamic

22 August 2011