Wedding photoshoot at PTI protest site in Pakistan

In the throngs of political agitation, police crackdown and widespread, Pakistan witnessed a light hearted moment when the protest site was the location for a wedding photoshoot and a parkour stunt. These incidents went viral on social media, with over a million views.

Dubbed as the ‘container couple,’ they posed in front of the containers placed by the police to deter the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protestors.

The pictures sparked a wide range of reactions online. One user said, “When life gives you containers, make the best out of them,” while another commented, “With right editing, it could look like a scene straight out of an apocalypse movie.”

Another comment said, “804 [a reference to Imran Khan’s prison ID number] the most beautiful shoot. They can show their future generations that they got married in the times when Pakistan was making history,”

The videos were accompanied by patriotic music and the caption read “Pov: Its your Lifetime event & Lockdown said Hi.” Social media were full of praises for the couple.

“Our wedding was in chaos, guests had arrived and the whole city was in a lockdown. Even our dresses were destroyed and we had to buy these dresses at the last moment. Amid all this, we decided to find a positive way to make our wedding memorable,” said the couple in an interview with BBC Urdu.

Addressing concerns about the shoot, the wedding photographers said that the wedding couple had been preparing for this day for a very long time and managed to make the best of the situation.

Another incident that garnered much praise online was of TikTok user Yasir Sultan, doing parkour on the containers. The video posted by Sultan shows him jumping on the containers while policemen stood below.

‘Pakistanis can bring fun out of absolutely anything and everything,’ people praised the video online.

One user commented “It is good that the containers are allowing people to show their skills. Go ahead and don’t be scared.” For other users, this man was the “face of Pakistani subway surfers”.

Jahanazeb Khan, former senior Vice President of PTI UK, shared the video saying that this is how people were making their voices heard.

The post read, “You might think this is a scene from a video game, but it’s not. This is the reality in Pakistan, where the illegal regime has blocked public protests by placing shipping containers on major highways. Undeterred, people are finding ways to climb over them to make their voices heard.”