The Sindh High Court has ordered the Sindh Board of Film Censors to review its decision to ban the film “Ghost School” and to reach a fresh decision within two weeks.
The order came from a two-member bench of Justice Adnanul Karim Memon and Justice Muhammad Jafar Raza, who were hearing a petition filed by the film’s makers under Article 199 of the Constitution. Ghost School was shot in Sindh and tells the story of a 10-year-old girl who questions the rumor that her school is haunted. The Sindh censor board had stopped the film from being shown in cinemas across the province since July 9.
During the hearing, the filmmakers’ lawyer, Mirza Moiz Baig, told the court that the film had already been approved by both the federal censor board and the Punjab censor board. He added that the movie would be shown in Karachi’s cantonment areas but was blocked only in areas run by the Sindh government.
In an interesting exchange, the judges asked the board’s secretary, Adil Ahmed, whether the film actually contained real ghosts, since that seemed to be the reason it was blocked. When Ahmed said he could not share the board’s reasoning, Justice Memon firmly told him that such details could not be hidden from the court and warned that the petition would be accepted if the board kept withholding its reasons.
The lawyer further argued that Sindh’s film law only allows a ban if a film harms Islam, national security, foreign relations, public order, or morality, and that the board’s decision did not fall under any of these categories. He also said the makers were never given a show-cause notice before the ban.
Notably, Ghost School had already won the Best Director award at the UK Asian Film Festival in May and was later nominated at the Toronto International Film Festival.
