Controversial Pakistani art exhibit is forced to close

BY SHANZE HASAN ’21

An installation by Pakistani artist Adeela Suleman, “The Killing Fields of Karachi,” was put on display in a park outside Frere Hall as a part of Karachi’s Biennale art show on Oct. 27. According to The New York Times, “the exhibit comprised of 444 concrete tombstones that symbolized the alleged extra-judicial killings by an ex-policeman.” Shortly after its opening, the city’s authorities immediately closed it down due to its controversial nature.

Rao Anwar, the policeman, is notoriously known by the people now for abusing his discretion and murdering innocent people. In his career, he served as senior superintendent of police. But “Anwar was [only] removed from the police force after the death of one of his victims gained worldwide traction,” according to The New York Times.

According to Dawn News, Pakistan’s leading English-language news source, Suleman’s art represents and was inspired by the tragedy of 27-year-old Naqeebullah Mehsud, who was killed in an encounter with the police. The installation was followed by a short documentary presenting Mehsud’s father, another one of Anwar’s professed victims.

A few hours into its opening, the portion of the exhibit that played the documentary in the lower gallery of Frere Hall was padlocked shut. As for the graves erected outdoors, some were knocked over but for the most part remained temporarily untouched as they could not be sealed. “The exhibit was later on entirely sealed off and some tombstones disrupted, however, there were a group of art students and volunteers that aided in the restoration of the installation of the very next day,” according to Dawn News.

This forceful closure of Suleman’s art exhibition shows the censorship in Pakistan. Art is exploited of its essence of self-expression, but serves as a tool for the government. In fact, censorship has always been the undeclared culture of Pakistan. As The Diplomat also noted that “Pakistan ranked 142nd out of 180 countries – falling three places from 2018 – in Reporters Without Borders’ 2019 World Press Freedom Index.” The shut-down of this art exhibition ignited people’s anger and “gained country-wide denouncement from human rights activists as well as various other artists who viewed it as yet another attempt by local officials to state-enforce censorship and conceal the everlasting human rights issue,” as reported by The New York Times.

People are disappointed by this undemocratic move. “In a country where controversial artwork such as this is important in order to bring to light inhumane acts of injustice, it is sad to see the lack of freedom of expression socially conscious artists are being authorized,” Maha Ahmed ’21 said.

“It’s disappointing to see artists struggling to present their work,” said Kusha Chopra ’21. “If the public does not have access to view their pieces, how will they ever gain recognition?”

Although people inside the country can hardly take action to undo this entrenched censorship, outside forces put pressure on the leading party — Pakistan People’s Party. When Suleman and the human rights activists gathered for a press conference to condemn the closure, the apparent director general of parks, Afaq Mirza, stormed in and forcefully snatched away the microphones and media outlets from a prominent activist Jibran Nasir mid-speech, according to Dawn News. This heated frenzy consisted of the two men raising their voices at each other in an inflamed argument.

Nasir, who was responsible for organizing the conference streamed this chaotic exchange live on his Facebook page and later posted details of the contretemps on his various social media platforms. Nasir blamed Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, for defending an officer with close ties to the agency.

Dawn News said that the press conference ended successfully for the artist and activists that surrounded the scene as Nasir upheld his authority in the face of his opponent Mirza. Nasir regulated the debacle by calling out Mirza for not handling graver concerns such as corruption by his predecessor and told him to go back to doing his job.

Pakistan has a history of placing limitations and constraints on media services in an effort to restrict the government or military from being bad-mouthed. This case emerged as yet another example of young artists being stifled from showcasing their work by the censorship Pakistan’s government vehemently imposes on media and public art.