Turkish plays: unjustified protest

E-Paper | July 23, 2026

INSTEAD of protesting and seeking government protectionist regulations against Turkish, Spanish dramas, the United Producer Association (UPA), which represents private television producers and production houses, should compete with foreign dramas by improving their quality and standards, so that the local viewers prefer watching Pakistani dramas rather than Turkish and other foreign soaps.

The real reason of their protest is to save their financial interest as these dramas are less expensive than their own cost of drama production. Anyway, how long it will take us as a nation to understand that the world is becoming one global village, the movements of people and goods across countries’ borders are now becoming free passage.

Should not we want to see our country to be like Turkey in which the majority of the population is Muslim, but the state is secular, as the Quaid wanted for Pakistan?

I feel sorry to see TV artistes protesting against liberal values and that Pakistan may become a corrupt society when they are themselves liberal and want freedom from government restriction on live theatre performances.

As for the concern of UPA protesters that Pakistani culture is being attacked to destroy our society, I would like to ask them: what evils we don’t have in our society? We are considered the most dangerous country in the world. We are killing each other for the glory of our religion.

We should stop blaming others for our own failure in every sphere of human endeavour. Why should Pakistanis not have the basic rights of choice and the personal liberty to decide what is good and bad, and what is right and wrong for them? Why do the state and government have to decide what we should watch?

SYED TASADUQ Lahore

Newspaper

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Tahir Alam

Jan 01, 2013 02:45am

As a viewer, I am very hopeful for the future of our TV drama industry. It has become a thriving business and it is going to become a proper industry soon, I hope. It makes me very proud. After the collapse of Film industry, it seemed that we, as a nation, will not be able to do anything good in this field but the drama industry showed some talent in our people and it became a beacon of hope. It is doing so well that when my boss visited Pakistan after many years, he kept talking about the drama serial "Hamsafar" that he was watching in US on the internet. When every other industry is having a downfall in the country, the drama industry was on the rise and was creating good economic activity. Now, if our channels will buy foreign content (Indian, Turkish etc), it will be a huge blow to this developing industry and our economy. The local talent will not find enough opportunities to work and the economic disaster will also be very huge. I have seen the impact of importing Chinese goods that forced local industries to closed down and many lost their stable jobs and now they are living in very problematic conditions. I support our drama industry and I urge all the Pakistanis to do whatever they can to save our industry.

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Karachiwalla

Jan 01, 2013 04:17am

Cultural invasion is no different than physical invasion in fact worst amoung both invasions.

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Jamal

Jan 01, 2013 01:51am

Sitting in the United States, we get tired of the hypocrisy of the Pakistani TV media. While in Pakistan thpe media behaves as the ultimate guardian of morals and keeps showing sterile programming to keep the other hypocrites, officials and Mullahs, pleased by portraying Pakistnis as squeecky clean and morally pure. The same channels in their foreign programming don't tire of showing Indian movie dances that are as close to pornography as they could be. This is to hold on to what little viewership they retain in competition to Indian TV. The most notorious is a channel that otherwise is owned and operated by a very religious clan. So they should lighten up and allow more entertainment on their domestic channels or make their outlets purely for news, religious and educational programming. This would cut deeply into their profits but then, as they say 'put your money where your mouth is'.

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Ali

Dec 31, 2012 11:44pm

This was the funniest line in the whole article, " Pakistan may become a corrupt society".

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wasif mehmood

Dec 31, 2012 06:46am

it is not about the financial aspects that there has been much hue and cry on the issue of foreign invasion of dramas. it is a matter of cultural interruption and patriotism. Nowhere even in India, the pakistani dramas are shown or promoted on the basis of cultural diversity. we should show our own culture in the true perspectives by avoiding all the vulgarities on the name of secularism.

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Mohammed Ali Shyhaki

Dec 31, 2012 06:07am

I fully agree with Syed Tasaduq, as I had co-produced also directed two plays myself and all our money and efforts are gone due to the high expense and no return, may be due to all what Mr. Syed has mentioned. I accept that we should stop such obvious blames on others for our own lethargy and unjustified charges by talent and other self created qualms, in every sphere of human endeavor. We live in a democratic and freedom of bla bla in this country, why should we not have the basic rights of choice and the personal liberty to decide what is good and bad, and what is right and wrong for us? Why do the protesters or even the state and government have to decide what we should watch?

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