A few days ago, Islamabad’s most iconic shopping and entertainment centre Centaurus Mall imposed a Rs. 500 entry ticket for men and boys who were not accompanied by a family.
The decision to increase the entry fee and make it non-refundable was criticized by many. Faced with a severe backlash, it seems that the administration of Centaurus Mall has finally responded to its move over social media.
Background
Earlier, the mall used to charge Rs. 300 as entry fee for single men who wished to visit the mall by themselves, with Rs. 250 being refundable and redeemable at selected outlets in the mall.
After the mall’s management increased the price and made it non-refundable, a severe backlash followed.
Here’s what the Centaurus Mall administration had to say afterwards to justify its move:
https://www.facebook.com/TheCentaurusLightYearsAhead/photos/a.107478965936505.12792.107478479269887/1823996714284713/?type=3
As per the authorities at the Mall, the move to enhance the entry fee was taken to ensure that guys visiting the mall aren’t going there for loitering, stalking women and disturbing families that visit the mall, and are there for shopping instead. It justified its move by stating that the original entry fee rate was apparently not enough to keep such elements at bay.
However, the mall has now decided to revert to its previous entry fee rate, making it redeemable as well.
What do you think? Was Centaurus Mall justified in taking the measures it did during the Eid holidays? Or did it just indulge in a gross generalization of all men? What if it was a group of boys who were there to do some shopping, or even a father-son duo who were hoping to do the same? What criteria does the mall apply in these cases?
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
It was a disgusting move
I have a suggestion for centaurus admin. They should impose a token worth Rs. 1000 for singles which can be used to shop at any store. The store can give tokens to the admin and get Rs. 1000/token. It must have a validity so that the singles don’t use the same token again.
Imposing an entry fee can’t be justified because this is a mall.
Amazing mindset, and worst is people are actually ok with this mindset.
This is like placing fee if single person visit Seaview because hey my family, sister, mother, etc are there!
POONDs can never be controlled. Thats it.
Bro do you now the Average of of Vega-bounding Around the World
then Decide who is Wrong in CenTarus Female goes almost naked very thin layer of dress they use its basically of one’s family matter of Preaching of DEEN Islam
Yeah. I too saw a girl in shorts (kachcha) once at food court (I visited twice only) and I thought this is the reason guys come here. Can centaurus mall dare to make “burqa” compulsory for women to enter in mall?? Hell No!
oo kacha paway na paway.. oo burka paway na paway.. tanu ki..?? tu na waikh jy tainu koi taqleef ay? ajeeb backwas hy!
every one should have a liberty of doing whatever they deem fit unless they are not invading someones private space and not harassing anyone.
Comment di samjh aaway na aaway bakwaas zaroor karni hundi
And everyone has the liberty to look at anything they want. You cannot police peoples eyes. Checking out girls is not harassment.
@idmcaff:disqus aka poond,
So you mean to say, checking your sister out is not harassment. Okay I accept that but if your sister feels uncomfortable with all the “checking out”, it is harassment and should not be done. This comes under invading private space. See, at least I am speaking for your sister.
@disqus_f4KOfxsOH9:disqus
tanu keri samajh lagi aa mery comment di. chal koi nae. aik main suti, aik tu. hasab barabar!
What criteria does the mall apply in these cases?
If you are good looking an/or rich you will be let in. Women dont mind being checked out by attractive, eligible men
I totally agree with mall authorities, and certain fee should be charged even for using toilets so that they could be remain clean. Metro charging Rs. 20/ and this has brought a huge crowd to Mall, just go and see the pathetic situation of cinemas, seats are torn, dirty, and people watching put foots at the back and try to push your seats, over the period myself has stopped going to mall cinemas with family or without family. (Mian Shaukat Masud) VP-FPCCI
Shaukat Masud, With due respect, It is un-necessary to make it public that you are VP-FPCCI, Your views would be respected even otherwise.I beg to differ and the reasons are that Centaurus Mall is a public place and should NOT resort to discrimination. They cannot discriminate a certain segment of Pakistani society.
The mall has no other option. I no more go to Centaurus because of random guys disturbing people around them. Last time a bunch of teenage boys kept following me and harassed me by walking to close or saying weird. It was shocking for me cause i am old atleast 15 years older to those guys. I ignored them for a while and eventually told one of the guard and stayed inside a shop till they left. I didn’t feel sorry for those guys at all.
Similarly, once 2 guys were making videos from mobile phone of passing girls and woman. I still don’t know the motive behind the video but no one would want (not even a man) random people making videos of them!.
Its sad but the mall is made for shopping and they need customers who would come and buy stuff not harass ppl around them.
WOW… and whats the point of sharing this story here? What good it will do now? You should have taken action there by slapping the kid OR snatching the phone and shatter into pieces. If you dont have guts to do ^THIS^ then stop complaining or whining and live with it. Commenting wont help lady and no security or management will unless you something for yourself !!!
Well pointing out the truth and the fact that I did what “most people in the society have told me to do”. If I slap a guy because he is harassing me and he starts hitting me no one would come to help me. Most of the people will blame me not the the harasser so yesI don’t have the guts to slap anyone or take someone phone and Throw it away … what good? It’s for ppl to understand why such measures are being taken… and security is there for protection and safeguard of ppl and I used my brain instead of my heart … for a guy it’s easy to slap someone not for a girl and that’s the truth …
They should post more guards. Use CCTV to locate loafers and make sure they are handled properly. Address any complaints by kids and female visitors by having a dedicated desk on each floor. If they feel the Mall is too crowded, stop more people from entering the Mall. I am sure if someone tries to steel a shoe from one of the shops at the Mall, he won’t be able to run far, before being caught and properly handled, same courtesy could be extended to the complaints by Female visitors. If McDonald can prevent visitors from bringing outside food into their restaurants, why can’t a Mall stop perverts from entertaining its premises?
Now, all this is nice, if the purpose is to provide a secure environment for Female Visitors, but if the intent is to keep ‘dirty people’ out, Rs. 500 or Rs. 300 does yield better results …
Any male who cannot afford a 300 or 500 fee is a dirty pervert according to your definition.
They need to make their security better inside the mall instead of this shit ass practise.
Its gender discrimination
The society is getting worse and worse for men. Any step biased against one one gender is not acceptable.
They are just following the night club model.. Let the ladies in free and charge the men!
They should charge at least 5,000 PKR for entry or may be like $50 (in cash).
This way, only the elite can enjoy the beautiful view :/
So let me give the “social justice” warriors an example here, when the telecom helplines were free, we used to receive a lot of prank/crank calls. People would just call for the fun of it and just to tick you off because they had nothing better to do. As the subscriber base grew, so did such number of calls. Eventually when the companies implemented helpline charges and increased them to around 2 rupees, the influx of such calls dropped drastically whereas it wasn’t affected too much when helpline charges were lower. Crank callers were mostly male unfortunately, who had nothing better to do.
Now what people need to understand here is that by imposing these charges, they are not labeling anyone, they are simply trying to filter out or deter untoward situations. I can go by the whole “tumhari maa behn k saath ho ga to bolna” logic but that is of no use. Can the policy be improved? Off course. Give your suggestions instead of just bashing the decision. In this case, I think the coupon should be useable at all outlets or refundable if the person spent and equal amount in the mall.
Centaurus mall should apprehend the loafers once any female complaints. Get the video recordings of loafers, lodge an FIR with evidence and hand them to police for harassment. You set couple of examples. You wont have this problem again.
There should be more malls in Islamabad or pindi like karachi. This sitution saw in imitiaz defence branch where elite and gutka awam shopping together now a new branch iz opening in centre of korangi of imitaz automatically people prefer the near one.
O kanjro, ghareeb diharri daar ki shop py kyun nahi jaty? Sirf larkio ko dekh kar muth marny k liye mind bnaty ho bus, jo b yeh cheap harkatain krny k liye jaty hain wo sab cheap gash ti k bachy hain
Well that was an experiment by Centaurus which failed miserably. Centaurus should keep make policies considering long-term outcomes. And for those Ladies who get harassed at the mall, if they have balls to complain to the management about them being harassed then they should have guts to give slap to the guy(s) in public right there and then and I bet this would be the best and most effective solution to this problem.
slapping anyone is not a solution to anything. that is assault. the best thing is to complain to the management there and and management should apprehend loafers and should lodge an FIR and hand them to police for harassment. You do this for couple of days, set couple of examples and I assure you, you wont be bothered with this issue anymore.
I would suggest you read my 2nd response to Miss Mehwish above…
it was due to pindi boyz ?
and Rs 20 ticket of metro another factor
screw Centaurus instead go safa mall. By the way they were charging entry fees since ages now.
Centaurus Mall and all of it’s management can go to hell. And last time I checked, the previous Rs.300 token was refundable for Rs.200 on weekdays and Rs.150 on weekends. Get your facts straight author.
It was a pathetic and most disgusting move any mall, in Pakistan, has ever done.
So Disrespectful. I live among people with pathetic mindset.
Pindi Boyzzzzzzzzzzzz zindabad