Asha Bhosle – Brown Pundits

1) Trump says truce expires ‘Wednesday evening Washington time’.

US President Donald Trump has signalled an extension in the ceasefire with Iran, which was set to end on April 21 8pm ET.

He told Bloomberg in a phone interview that the truce expires on “Wednesday evening Washington time”.

But the president also said it’s “highly unlikely that I’d extend it” if no deal is reached before then, the report said.

It seemed that a second round of talks was going to happen. Islamabad’s Red Zone is locked down in anticipation of the arrival of the American delegation. JD Vance was supposedly returning to Islamabad. But the US seizure of an Iran-flagged ship and Iran’s closing of the Strait of Hormuz once again seems to have changed things.

2) Basharat Peer on Kashmir, Haider, Homebound, Iran, Modi, Erdogan & Why Democracies Break

[Note: Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night is one of the classic books about growing up as a Kashmiri Muslim in Indian-Administered Kashmir in the 1990s.

I’ve met Basharat Peer when he spoke at LUMS some years ago. He signed my copy of his book. ]

3) Remembering Asha Bhosle: A View From Pakistan

Both countries’ polities remain locked in an unending war and demonise each other in all forms of despicable ways and continue to pull up walls and disinformation through propaganda, movies and fake news about one another. Still, can you stop me from loving Amir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, or Ranbir Kapoor? And Asha ji’s voice?

There is a generation or two who remember better times and continue to love our classical and Bollywood film phases. You can’t erase our experiences. Pakistanis have grown up loving Indian movies and their singers and actors.

Looking at the comments under the Geo TV notice by PEMRA is a testament of the sanity that foundationally prevails in Pakistani society.

We might rally around our government when it is under attack from outside forces, but we will not deny our shared love and admiration of iconic artists of the subcontinent. That would be denying our own culture.

A few days ago RNJ had referred to Pakistani TV channels being issued show-cause notices for airing Indian content in connection with the passing of Asha Bhosle.

This is one of the rare occasions when RNJ and I actually agree on something. Though there is a judgement of Pakistan’s Supreme Court that bans the airing of Indian content on TV–and this is what PEMRA relied upon in their arguments–I personally think that this law is counterproductive. Art should transcend borders.

Mirza Moeez Baig explains in DAWN:

The decision in Human Rights Case No 22753-S: In 2016, Pemra issued a circular banning all private TV channels from airing Indian content. The circular was assailed before the Lahore High Court, where Justice Mansoor Ali Shah declared that Pemra’s ban was unconstitutional. In 2018, however, the apex court suspended the LHC judgement. In keeping with the jurisprudence that characterised his tenure, then chief justice Saqib Nisar, while suspending Justice Shah’s well-reasoned judgement, thundered, “They are trying to obstruct the construction of our dam and we cannot even ban their channels.”

And:

The right to free speech includes the right to receive ideas, facts, knowledge, theories, creative and emotive impulses through theatre, da-nce, music and film. Critical to the foundation of an independent and free media is creating an environment conducive to the widest possible dissemination of informa-tion from diverse and antagonistic sources.

Unsurprisingly, Pemra’s show-cause notice would only pass muster if the content celebrating Bhosle’s musical journey (i) offended Pakistan’s ideology, (ii) was immoral, (iii) or jeopardised Pakistan’s security and integrity. Needless to say, Bhosle’s music posed no such existential threat.

I will end this post with a clip of Asha ji and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s piece “Khayal in Gaud Sarang”

Tag: Asha Bhosle

US-Iran War

Overzealous Pemra