Pornography in Pakistan

Pornography in Pakistan is illegal and is subject to several legal provisions. However, it is easily accessible in most parts of the country, particularly in privately owned video shops and through the Internet. Pornographic movies are commonly referred to as Blue print movies or Tripple (derived from Triple X). Erotic dance is available on DVDs and CDs, which are locally known as the Mujra. Until the year 2000, pornography in print media was popular and available at old magazine shops and sensual modeling magazines that were published from Karachi. Now, the interest in these outlets has waned after the trend of pornographic CDs and DVDs.

History

In 2010, a report by Fox News claimed that Pakistan was one of the countries that topped the list in the world in terms of internet pornographic and "sexy web searches." The report was based on statistical data acquired from Google Trends, although Google later pinpointed that the results were not necessarily always accurate. Following the incident, a whole new debate opened in the media, newspapers and society about the widespread viewership of pornography in Pakistan.[1][2]

In September 2011, a hacker claiming to be from Pakistan defaced the official website of the Supreme Court of Pakistan as a means to raise attention and call on the Chief Justice to permanently ban and block access to pornographic content on the Internet in the country.[3] In October 2011, the website of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was also defaced by the same hacker, with similar demands where the hacker demanded a blanket ban on all websites containing explicit material.[4]

In November 2011, the PTA announced that it was in the process of banning the 1,000 most-frequented pornographic websites in Pakistan. The measure was taken to curb pornography.[5] A report in 2012 said that, with many porn websites banned in the country, a few people were turning to purchasing pornographic DVDs in places such as Karachi's Rainbow Centre, which has long been the largest hub of video piracy and CD distribution in Pakistan.[6]

Child pornography

As of March 2012, Pakistan had no criminal laws addressing child pornography. A proposed law, supported by the Ministry of Human Rights, was facing hurdles because of the contention of the Ministry of Law and Justice that Sharia law determines maturity and that Pakistani children mature faster, in terms of understanding, than children in the West. The deadlock had lasted since 2009,[7] although Pakistan did ratify the Optional Protocol to the UNCRC on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography in June 2011.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pakistan’s porn conspiracy
  2. ↑ Tere bin Pornistan
  3. ↑ Hacker defaces Supreme Court website, Express Tribune
  4. ↑ Ban porn or else: Hacker penetrates PTA site
  5. ↑ PTA approved: Over 1,000 porn sites blocked in Pakistan
  6. ↑ Smutty DVD sales go up as porn sites go down
  7. ↑ Crilly, Rob (7 March 2012). "Pakistan children 'grow up faster than others because of spicy food'". Islamabad: The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 July 2012. For now, that means child sex abuse and pornography are not covered by Pakistan's criminal law.
  8. ↑ Child Rights Movement (CRM) Pakistan (April 2012). "The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Pakistan: The State of Children’s Rights in Pakistan" (PDF). Retrieved 18 July 2013.
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