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News |  07 Jun 2014 18:21 |  By RnMTeam

Band Laal: We are critics of government policies, but do not indulge in anti-state activities

Media from all over the world and fans of Pakistani Rock band- Laal came out in support of the band after reports surfaced that PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) imposed a ban on their Facebook page with liberal view. The page was made inaccessible to users in Pakistan.

After making the ban global news and a few follow-ups, PTA succumbed to pressure and lifted the ban. The page is now available to netizens of Pakistan.

Laal, is a six-member band, with three permanent members - Taimur Rahman (Guitar and Vocals), Mahvash Waqar (Backup Vocals) and Haider Rahman (Flute).

In this week’s Musical Rendezvous, Laal’s Taimur Rehman had a conversation with Radioandmusic.com’s Jescilia Karayamparambil about the ban and plans for their album.

Did anyone contact you before imposing the ban on your Facebook page?

We were not informed at all. The admin of the ‘Laal’ page contacted us (band members) and said that fans could not access the page. We discovered that PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) had initiated it. In the morning, we called them up, after a lot of running around; we got a confirmation that our page was blocked by Facebook. They asked us for a written application for the reason behind the block. Meanwhile, we started posting about it on social media which was followed by fans and friends sharing the information. They started writing about it on Twitter and people went crazy about it. Since it became a rage on social media, the main stream media picked it –Dawn, New York Times, The Hindu, Al Jazeera, BBC Urdu service, NDTV and then many others.

This was followed by the AFP getting in touch with Facebook and the social site confessed that they had blocked Laal on the request of PTA. AFP contacted PTA and they denied the move. When Facebook and PTA contradicted each other publicly, it was an embarrassment for the PTA. After reports surfaced on various media outlets, they retracted the ban. The whole story is that the ban was imposed on the basis of anti-state activity.

Do you think any of your recent posts provoked PTA to take this decision?

I do not feel that any recent post provoked them. It was the overall activism of Laal, at grass-root level. The ban was not limited to Facebook; it was more about the awareness activities that we have been doing in Pakistan that provoked them. Our grass-root level activities include freedom of media, ethnicity, and class and so on. We have been critics of the policies of the government, there is no doubt about it, but we have not done any anti-state activities. We were defending human rights and other progressive rights. Our influence has grown over years and we have four lakh people on our page and more than 15,000 people are writing to us daily, 1050 people view our posts every week and things like that made them think we are influential. There was no specific post. If that was the case, they should have just blocked the post and not the page.

In recent weeks, our posts were usually jokes. There was nothing extra-ordinarily radical in the last week or last few days.

After the ban will you still continue your activities?

110 per cent, we will continue doing what we are doing. We are happy and pleased that the ban has been lifted. We were planning a big tour way before the ban occurred, and we will continue with that plan. We received such enormous support across Pakistan. We will continue our struggle as the support we received during our time of the need was encouraging. We were doing these activities for ourselves and for others as we do not want our voices to be suppressed in Pakistan. It has raised the optimism and energy, we continue to struggle and nothing will keep us down.

Did PTA ever contact you in the past?

This is the first time we had such an issue with PTA. They never censored us before or sent us any form of notification. We were unaware that they can do something like this. We were hardly aware that they existed.

Tell us about your album and tours?

We are planning to record our third untitled album, hopefully by end of this year. In the next couple of months, we are planning a multi-city tour in Pakistan. It is a major tour where we will cater to fans in various villages, small towns and cities. We are scheduling this tour for a year. In a week, we plan to have two-three gigs. Last year also we had a few gigs almost every week. We are prolific performers.

We are also planning to release a video for our album. The songs are composed, but they have to be recorded, mixed and mastered. Mostly, we have 10 tracks on the album, which is standard for us. The tracks will have new elements like Punjabi folk music. It will be more or less rock folk fusion.

I am invited to India for a conference and I will perform in Kolkata and will try performing in Delhi as well when I visit.

What is your take on the music festival scene in India?

My take on that is that they should invite us. We would love to be invited. We will be honoured to come and play if we are called to India for a music festival.

Games