Case against ‘Black Friday’ disposed of

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday directed a petitioner to approach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for redressal of his grievance against Black Friday, which is observed worldwide, including Pakistan, by shopping malls offering special discount to consumers, especially for Christmas shoppers. A citizen, Naveed Anwar, had filed the petition arguing that ‘Black Friday” had no concept in Islam or the culture of Pakistan as it was a tradition of western countries. He contended that wide celebration of “Black Friday” was a result of growing influence of the western culture on the people of Pakistan. The petitioner asked the court to impose a ban on observing “Black Friday” and order the ministry of information and broadcasting to make the shopping malls use some other name of the festival to offer special discounts for consumers. He said the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) should be directed to take notice of the situation and issue a policy on it.
However, Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza disposed of the petition and directed the man to approach the relevant ministry first for the redress of his grievance.