Sindh High Court Sets Aside Most Censor Board Cuts in ‘Ghost School’ Film, Orders Fresh Certification Within 10 Days

KARACHI: The makers of the Ghost School film have won substantial relief from the Sindh High Court. A two-judge bench has set aside most of the eight cuts the Sindh Board of Film Censors demanded before it would certify the film, and told the board to think again — this time within 10 days. The bench comprised Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed and Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry.

‘The power to excise is not unbounded’

The board, the court held, had never explained how the disputed scenes broke the law, or why each cut was necessary. “The power to excise is not unbounded,” the bench observed, adding that any cut has to be measured against its purpose and against the freedom of expression protected by Article 19 of the Constitution. Only one excision survives: an inappropriate remark by a child in a school scene, which the filmmakers themselves had already agreed to remove. The board must now either certify the film for unrestricted public exhibition without further cuts or, if it insists on a rating higher than Universal, give the filmmakers a personal hearing and a written, reasoned order for every objection — and even then it must choose the least restrictive category available.

A school, a rumour, and a 10-year-old

Directed by Seemab Gul, the film follows a 10-year-old girl who finds the only school in her village shut, with rumours spreading that the building is haunted. The federal and Punjab censor boards have both already cleared the same film. It was the Sindh board’s refusal that pushed the filmmakers to the high court under Article 199 — and it is Sindh, the province where the story is set, that will now have to decide again.