Provincial Government in Pakistan Bans Late Night Call Packages

I am compelled to share an excerpt from a post by Murtaza Ali Jafri on the Dawn Blog . I was unable to discern my reaction after reading it: is it funny or pathetic?

Last month, the Punjab Assembly resolved to ban all late-night call packages offered by mobile telecommunications companies in the province. During vigorous assembly debates, it was concluded that the ability to make cheap, late-night phone calls was having a negative impact on this country's bright young things. Forget terrorism, the energy crisis, a weakened government, and water shortages - apparently boys and girls texting and calling each other past their bed time has become a matter of national concern.

Hence the assembly resolution demanding that mobile companies stop promoting "cheap rate, late night packages that alter societal tendencies." Luckily for us nocturnal phone addicts, the powers that be haven't yet discovered the prevalence of instant messenger or the internet.

I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but cheap mobile packages don't corrupt the youth, society corrupts the youth. After all, the previous generation grew up without mobile phones, the internet, cable television, and Gossip Girl, and they've hardly turned out to be bastions of virtue.

Does the Government of Pakistan ever fail to surprise us? Only if they could ban all guns given the fact that so many young Pakistanis were being lured by terrorist groups.