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A critically-acclaimed movie that calls attention to the issue of ‘ghost schools’ will not be screened in the very province it was filmed, after the Sindh Board of Film Censors refused to grant it a censor certificate.

Ghost School, which was written, directed and produced British-Pakistani filmmaker Seemab Gul, has already bagged the best director award for the film at the UK Asian Film Festival.

The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it was nominated in the best film category. It was then screened at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah earlier this year, and earned critical praise and an honourable mention at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles for its “exceptional social realism and restrained storytelling”.

It also won a special award at the Asian African Latin American Film Festival.

The film highlights the issue of girls’ education, and follows the story of 10-year-old Rabia — played by Nazualiya Arsalan. The protagonist wants to pursue her studies, but her local school is closed down after a rumour that it is haunted — an excuse used by both the teacher as well as the village elder to shut the school.

Filmmaker says no reasoning given for withholding permission; minister insists censor board must have had ‘a valid reason’

The movie was filmed in Chashma Goth, and another village on the outskirts of Karachi.

Talking to Dawn, Ms Gul said she was shocked by the censor board’s decision. She maintained that her film did not contain anything controversial and only dealt with issues around education. She said that the federal censor board, as well as authorities in Punjab had no objections to the film, and only Sindh found it “not suitable”.

According to a letter sent by the secretary of the Sindh Board of Film Censors, “After careful examination and due deliberation, the board found the film not suitable for public exhibition”.

“I have no information what the board members found objectionable in the film,” she said, as no reasons were given in the board’s correspondence.

Dawn reached out to Sindh Board of Film Censors Chairman Khalid Bin Shaheen, but received no response.

When approached for comment, Sindh Culture Minister Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah said that the censor board was an autonomous body with a 15-member board that was authorised to issue film licences. He added that the board would certainly have had valid reasons for rejecting the licence application.

The decision comes as a blow to Ms Gul, who financed the film and is paying for its distribution out of her own pocket. If the film is not released in Karachi, the largest cinema market in the country, Ms Gul stands to take a massive financial hit. She told Dawn she had written to the censor board following their rejection, but received no repsonse.

“There are around 15,000 ghost schools in Sindh, it’s a critical issue,” she said, appealing to the censors to reconsider their decision.

Tahir Siddiqui in Karachi also contributed to this report

Originally published in Dawn, August 4th, 2026