In Pakistan, government restricts love on Valentine’s Day

A couple take selfie in front of a giant heart-shaped bouquet, set up for Valentine’s Day, in Islamabad on Sunday. (Photo: AP)

The lovebirds in Pakistan had been planning dates for months but there were many hurdles to scale on Valentine’s Day — challenging the government being one of them.

Under interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s orders the district administration banned all sorts of celebrations to mark the day in Islamabad, warning of possible arrests.

There were similar orders in various districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where militants also threatened to hit such parties.

President Mamnoon Hussain urged the nation not to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

“This day has no connection with our culture and it should be avoided,” he said.

The extremists had always opposed Valentine’s Day celebrations, terming it against Islam, but the government has gone one step further — announcing “strict action” against any merrymakers.

Celebrating the day has often been criticised by extremists as an “insult” to Islamic values.

Valentine’s Day activities have often been disrupted in the past by supporters of the hard-line Jamaat-e-Islami and other like-minded parties, but it is for the first time that the state has intervened to ban festivities on the day.

Maulana Mohammed Aamir, an Islamabad-based cleric, said in the past few years many new days or events had been “imported”.

He said that in Pakistan and it has become fashionable to celebrate and talk about these events which neither belonged to “our culture nor to our values and religion”.

He added, “Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Valentine’s Day are some of the examples. Valentine’s Day got more popularity. The role of the media to promote it is also negative.” Maulana Aamir said that Pakistan was an Islamic Republic and Islam was the religion of more than 97 per cent of the population, and such celebrations were strictly prohibited in Islam. “Islam teaches us to respect women. There’s no place for Valentine’s Day in Islam.”