Governor house open for wedding photography, official confirms

PESHAWAR: Yesterday, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Governor Haji Ghulam Ali came under criticism on social media for permitting video shoots within the premises of the Governor House in Peshawar.

The story got a boost when prominent journalist Saleem Safii shared a Tiktok video of a couple in wedding attire on X, formerly Twitter. Safi criticised the KP governor for allowing such practices.

Soon after the social media was thrown into a frenzy with critics and supporters coming together to debate the issue. Hum News covered that reaction here.

Wednesday saw another update, when late at night on Tuesday, the media in-charge to KP Governor Maaz Fida issued a clarification, explaining that governor house has always been open to the public for wedding photo shoots, with the condition that they obtained prior permission.

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In a post shared by Saleem Safi, the screenshot of the clarification, where Fida rebutted the news of any film shooting taking place in the governor house.

He said, “Public’s governor’s public governor house is just as accessible to newly married couples as it is for anyone else”. He said that the video doing rounds on the social media is of such a couple that had formally obtained permission for the photoshoot.

Fida added that there used to be a fee for such photo shoots before, which was abolished by Ghulam Ali when he became the governor. He said that a specific portion of the governor house is opened for such photo shoots and anyone obtain the facility.

It is notable here that renting out public properties for a nominal fee for photo shoots or events is a common practice, all across the world and in Pakistan as well. In March 2020, the then-Governor Punjab, Chaudhry Sarwar, had also approved renting out the Lahore Governor House estate for commercial activities to generate its operational expenditures.