Pranks in Pakistan Entertainment or Harassment?

A good way is to make people laugh with trouble-free acts. The crux of pranks often revolves around the ideology of making someone’s day. i.e. turning their doom into a spontaneous gloom. As it is said, the act might become a cheerful memory with the right intent. Sometimes, it may bring out the worst no one has dared to think of like a few pranks in Pakistan turned out.

Ever since the evolution of the internet, a number of creative endeavors have risen from the scratch. With each genre oblivious to the corresponding one, practical jokes or more commonly pranking has become an ultimate sort of entertainment. In conjunction with the e-trends happening across the globe, the acceptance of pranks grew over time. However, there is a very thin line between a practical joke and actually hurting someone.

So far pranks in Pakistan are quite different. This is opposite to what has been observed globally in general. Though pranks have been used to convey a positive social message, sadly most often they are merely the stunts to either earn money or to gain fame. The purpose of pranks in Pakistan usually revolve around the purpose of making the viewers entertain themselves. That is with the frustration of the subjects sadly.

The Sad and Ugly Face of Pranks in Pakistan

One may notice the ugly hidden camera pointing at you from behind the bushes or under a hidden spot, but who knows the actual wrath a person goes through. Let’s discover the highly popular pranks in Pakistan that went all wrong:

Gujranwala Youtuber

Khan Ali, a Gujranawala Youtuber with more than 300k subscribers made rounds across social media. That is after his video of harassing women went viral. Khan was arrested by the city police. His videos documented him asking & eventually harassing women to cover their heads with dupatta. This happened upon the complaint of a social media user, Sadaf Alvi. Through her tweet mentioning Amna Baig, Sub Divisional Police Officer, due action was taken against him by CPO Gujranwala. He was behind the bars in no time. Despite his pranks in Pakistan being available for months on YouTube, he was roaming freely. To no surprise had gathered a massive fan following as well.

Hania Amir Engagement

Ever since the advent of social media stories, especially those of Instagram ones, they have become a popular news breaker among modern celebrities. On the 1st of April, 2021 Hania Amir, a popular Pakistani Drama & Film Actress, posted a picture of her hand wearing the looks of an engagement ring. She posted it along with the dates of the unexpected engagement announcement. A number of fellow celebrities started to wish congratulations to her. However, as revealed by her, she elaborated it to be an April Fool’s prank. The reaction to that from netizens was not very welcoming. She had recently broken off with Asim Azhar. People even let her remind of the fact that he is without her as he dodged a lifetime bullet.

Youtuber Shot Dead

Pranks are never meant to cause harm to any of the involved parties. However, often one can get involved in trouble. These pranks in Pakistan turned out to be harmful to the Lahore Youtuber. It’s when he got in a tussle with the unknown men, resulting in him being shot dead. The trio behind Lahori Vines, Rana Zuhair, Abdul Saboor, and Hasnat Ali were pranking the people. They were pretending to be ghosts. Things turned 180 degrees around when one of the families in the park near Lytton Road did not take the prank easily. They opened fire on Zuhair as a reaction, killing him on the spot. Police took into custody Saboor and Hasnat as well. It was suspected that they might be involved in the mastermind act of finishing him off.

Tiktoker Fake Dead Stunt

A young TikToker had seemed to plunge into an otherwise good faith as his fake dead shot proved fatal to him. It happened while his friends were filming him. 19 years old Hamidullah held his friend’s pistol during a prank. The pistol was loaded. He held it to his temple and pulled the trigger in this unfortunate event. He played quite popular pranks in Pakistan. With a massive following of 80,000, he was unfortunately declared dead on the spot. The news of his death spread like fire on social media. Though he was famous for his pranks using friends, cricket as well as featured videos in the ever-green valleys. But, this fake stunt ended up taking his life in the most tragic manner.

Ex-minister April Fooled

Pakistan’s former Interior Minister Rahman Malik fell prey to the April Fool prank. He reacted to a false news story of renaming Islamabad’s new airport after the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. Express Tribune ran the story on their website as an April Fool’s prank story. It further escalated hilariously due to Malik’s serious reaction. As the Airport was decided to be named after Benazir Bhutto, a renowned Pakistan Peoples Party politician. The news, though fake, came as a shock to the ex-minister. He in his immediate response threatened the government about serious actions.

Loud Horn on Dogs

Though pranks in Pakistan and worldwide are to provide a sense of comic relief. Still, some people often cross the line as one of the videos of Pakistani Youtuber emerged. Fahad Dean, along with his editor Talha Zahid, released a video titled ‘Loud Horn Pranks on Dog’. The netizens’ reaction was aggressively massive. A number of renowned animal shelters, including JFK Animal Rescue and Shelter Lahore, mentioned the video on their social media handles. They demanded the publishers to apologize and remove the video. Soon multiple influencers and people, in general, started to criticize the prank. They shared their concerns about the harm done to the dogs.

Nimra Ali Calls a Girl Aunty

Becoming overnight famous with popular pranks in Pakistan is no more a difficult fate to achieve. However, with popularity comes responsibility. One such fate crossed the Pakistani sensation, Nimra Ali. It’s when one of her videos went viral. Her bubbly personality and unique narrative style soon stole the hearts of millions. Millions of viewers shared the video across social media channels. Not much later, another video of Nimra surfaced on the internet. This time she recreated the act of calling women ‘Aunty’. During the video, the girl called Aunty reacted harshly. She gave an earful to her. Her video went viral but this time for the wrong reasons. She referred to being a healthy human being as one of the reasons for being called Aunty in a casual manner.

My Stance on Prank Acts

Pranking is an act of purely engaging with people in a silly yet sweet manner to make their day, laugh out together and enjoy moments of fun. However, people often engage in acts that not only prove out to be fatal for them but for involved people as well. For the prank content creators and actors, it is better to devise the theme carefully so that they may not end up hurting themselves or others involved. As our generation has access to tools that connect them to billions of users in a matter of seconds, it has become the utmost responsibility for us to spread positivity around us.

As viewers, it falls under our responsibility as well to support and promote that content only which is harmless, fun, and enjoyable for the moment. We shouldn’t encourage those pranksters who follow the not-so-welcome route. The blame falls on us equally for supporting them in their journey. As a viewer, we should be more mindful of what you watch and share with others!