Karachi, A Pakistani court has directed a provincial film censor board to reconsider its decision to deny screening certification to an award-winning documentary on the problem of ‘ghost schools’ in the Sindh province.
In an order issued on Wednesday, a two-judge constitutional bench of the Sindh High Court headed by Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed directed the Sindh Board of Film Censors to reconsider the certification of ‘Ghost School’ within 10 days. The filmmaker’s counsel told the court that the documentary follows a 10-year-old girl who discovers that the only school in her village has closed after rumours that it is haunted. British-Pakistani filmmaker Seemab Gul, who financed, produced and directed the documentary, approached the court after the board denied it a screening certificate in August. The counsel argued that the Sindh censor board had ordered eight excisions before granting a certificate for public exhibition, even though the film had been cleared for unrestricted screening without cuts by Pakistan’s Central Board of Film Censors and the Punjab Board of Film Censors.
Gul said the documentary was based on research that identified hundreds of such schools in the province.
The court also set aside the board’s earlier decision to require the removal of certain expressions and scenes from the film. She had earlier questioned why the film was denied clearance in Sindh when other censor boards in Pakistan had approved its screening.
