Pak show draws ire for trying to drill moral sense

TV host chases couples sitting in parks,demands marriage certificate; slammed as vigil aunty

One morning last week,television viewers in Pakistan were treated to a darkly comic sight: a posse of middle-class women roaming through a public park in Karachi,on the hunt for dating couples engaged in immoral behaviour.

Panting breathlessly and trailed by a cameraman,the group of about 15 women chased after sometimes at jogging pace girls and boys sitting quietly on benches overlooking the sea or strolling under the trees. The women peppered them with questions: What were they doing? Did their parents know? Were they engaged?

Some couples reacted with alarm,and tried to scuttle away. A few gave awkward answers. One couple claimed to be married. The shows host,Maya Khan,31,demanded to see proof. So where is your marriage certificate? she asked sternly.

This hourlong spectacle,broadcast live on Samaa TV on January 17,set off a furious reaction in parts of Pakistan. Outrage sprang from the Internet and percolated into the national newspapers,where writers slammed Khans tactics as a witch hunt.

Vigil-aunties, read one headline,referring to the South Asian term aunty for older,bossy and judgmental women.

Now,the protests are headed to court. On Friday,four local non government organisations were to file a civil suit against Samaa TV in Pakistans Supreme Court,hoping to galvanise the countrys top judges into action.

Journalists dont have the right to become moral police, said Adnan Rehmat of Intermedia,a media development organisation that is among the petitioners. We need to draw a line.

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Images of moral vigilantes prowling the streets have an ominous resonance in Pakistan,where many still recall the dark days of the Islamist dictator General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s,when the police could demand to see a couples nikkahnama wedding papers under threat of imprisonment. In recent months,one reporter screamed at a man accused of child rape as he awaited trial outside a courthouse; another hectored a man said to be a self-confessed necrophile inside a jail cell; and a TV reporter raided a gathering of whisky drinkers,even though alcohol flows freely at many media parties.

Abbas Nasir,a former head of Dawn News television,said he was nauseated by some coverage.

Hosts are under pressure to bring in ratings,and there is carte blanche to do the most bizarre things, he said.

Another critic derided such reporters as pussycat vigilantes because they avoided challenging rich or powerful Pakistanis,whose Western-style lifestyles go unexamined.

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They only go after the people they know will not bite back, said Nadeem Farooq Paracha,a culture writer.