KARACHI, Aug 18: Of all the arts councils in the country, the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, receives the lowest grant from its provincial government every year.

Official sources told Dawn on Saturday that while all the arts council in Pakistan received Rs40,000 as annual grant from the federal government, they all got different grants from their provincial governments. “The Punjab government, for instance, gives Rs10 million to Alhamra which is the arts council in Lahore. The Quetta arts council, the Peshawar arts council and the Mehran arts council receive around Rs100,000 from the provincial governments. But the Karachi Arts Council receives only Rs10,000 from the Sindh government.”

They added that the reason why the arts council in the city was in such dire financial straits was that it did not get adequate funds from the Sindh government.

The sources said the Arts Council had only two sources of income: booking of the premises and membership fees. “In order to make the premises attractive so that more people book them for functions, the arts council must renovate them. But the arts council does not have any money to do that.”

They added that every month the arts council had to pay the salary of some 25 employees which took away a major chunk of the annual grant.

“The reason why the Arts Council does not expand its infrastructure is that it is always beset with financial problems on a monthly basis. It was when the federal government and the provincial government came to the arts council’s rescue that the construction of the theatre on the premises has become possible.”

They recalled that in 1992, the then vice president of the Arts Council, M.M. Osmani, and the then honorary secretary, Qudsia Akbar, had put forward the idea that a theatre be constructed on the premises of the Arts Council where serious plays could be staged.

“According to an estimate, it was calculated that the cost of the project would come to Rs25 million. The Sindh government contributed Rs10 million and the work on the theatre started in 1992. But the work came to a halt when the first instalment of the Sindh government grant had been consumed and further instalments were not forthcoming.” they said.

They noted with dismay that the project had remained in a state of limbo for about seven years. “In the meanwhile, the cost of construction, which was originally estimated to be Rs25 million, rose to Rs50 million.”

They added that it was only when the interior minister interceded with the president on behalf of the arts council that the Sindh government and the federal government paid Rs25 million each.