Fact-check: CM Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bans Pashto cinema?

Online posts have fueled claims that soon after taking office, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Khan Gandapur issued orders to ban Pashto cinema.

The claim is false. No such decision has been taken, as of now.

Claim

“Ali Amin Gandapur has banned Pashto films in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to prevent obscenity and terrorism,” wrote a user on Facebook on March 7. The post has been liked over 4,000 times, and shared 159 times, so far.

Similar claims were shared here, here and here.

Fact

Pashto cinema has not been banned from being screened in the province, confirm officials, cinema owners and producers.

Muhammad Ali Saif, the advisor to the chief minister for information, told Geo Fact Check over the phone that no such notification has been issued to date. While Ikram Khatana, the social media head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also said there was no truth to the online claims.

Separately, Geo Fact Check reached out to two cinema owners in Peshawar, Arshad Khan of Arshad Cinema and Salhe Muhammad of Sabrina Cinema. Both said they have not received any information of a ban on Pashto movies.

The same was confirmed by Muzafar Khan, a producer in Peshawar. “I also saw such claims,” Khan said, “So I went to the cinema this morning and found out that there is no [ban].”

With additional reporting by Nadia Khalid.

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