'Joyland's success is Pakistan's success': Celebrities rally behind filmmaker Saim Sadiq for Joyland's release.

Internationally recognised film Joyland is facing a major roadblock in its journey to release in its home country as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has revoked the censor certificate granted to the filmmaker months ago. Ever since a copy of the notification made it to social media, celebrities have been up in arms, calling for an end to the ban and for the film to be released.

Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan of the JI shared on Saturday a copy of the notice dated November 11 that read that the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) Islamabad granted the censor certificate on August 17 this year. However, after receiving complaints that 'the film contains highly objectionable material which do not conform with the social values and moral standards of our society and is clearly repugnant to the norms of 'decency and morality; as laid down in Section 9 of the Motion Picture Ordinance, 1979,' the federal government has declared Joyland 'uncertified'.

A few hours after Joyland's actor Sarwat Gilani and musician Abdullah Siddiqui were joined by other celebrities to decry the decision, director Saim Sadiq shared his statement on Instagram, 'We - as a team - are gutted by this development but fully intend to raise our voice against this grave injustice. I am compelled to point out that this sudden U-turn by the Pakistan Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is absolutely unconstitutional and illegal.'

He also shared that Joyland got certified by all three censor boards earlier in August. 'The 18th amendment in the Pakistani Constitution gives all provinces the autonomy to make their own decision, yet the Ministry suddenly caved under pressure from a few extremist factions - who have not seen the film - and made a mockery of our federal censor board by rendering their decision irrelevant,' Sadiq wrote.

He added that in addition to their censor certificate being revoked, the ministry has also gone 'against the Constitution by ordering all the other provincial censor boards, Sindh and Punjab, to follow its decision,' and that Joyland is still certified to release in Punjab and Sindh on its original release date, November 18.

'I am thankful for all the messages on mainstream and social media in support of the film and against this decision to hinder the film's release in its home country, which show that Pakistani audiences are sensible and don't want to be dictated about which film they should or should not watch,' Sadiq wrote with the...