KARACHI, Jan 29: The administration of the Arts Council has failed to make the organizers of a commercial play give a refund on theatre tickets to hundreds of drama buffs when the play was cancelled.

Official sources told Dawn on Wednesday that while the Arts Council had forfeited the sum deposited by the organizers in advance, it had made no arrangements to get the organizers to refund the money to hundreds of theatre-goers.

Syed Javed Bashir of the Pakistan International Arts had booked the auditorium of the Arts Council for a play on Jan 11.

The play, titled Mughal-i-Azam (starring Omer Sharif), was cancelled. Mr Bashir, however, did not give a refund on theatre tickets to the buyers.

One of the ticket-holders that Dawn spoke to said that he had booked seven tickets for the theatre. “I purchased the tickets at Rs110 each.

Accompanied by friends, when I went to the Arts Council to see the play, we were told that the play had been postponed. The organizers said the play would be staged on Jan 18 for which the same tickets would be used.

However, on Jan 18 we were told that the play had been cancelled and the refund on the theatre tickets would be given at Karachi Auditorium.”

The ticket-holder recalled that at Karachi Auditorium they had not been given the refund. “Instead, the organizers promised to refund the money at the Arts Council on Jan 21. They did not turn up at the Arts Council on Jan 21.”

He noted that the Arts Council should have made arrangements to get the organizers of the play to refund the money to the theatre-goers.

When contacted, the executive director of the Arts Council, Shamim Alam, conceded that the Arts Council had forfeited Rs30,000 deposited by Mr Bashir as advance. He said it was not possible for the Arts Council to refund the money to the theatre-goers.

“The deposit forfeited by the Arts Council in the event of the cancellation of drama covers our loss. The organizers had booked the auditorium for a number of days for which we had turned down other booking offers. The deposit covers this loss.”

Mr Alam said the governing body of the Arts Council would look into the matter at its meeting in the first week of February.

He added that the governing body was expected to come up with a policy to deal with those organizers who do not give a refund on theatre tickets.

Arts Council sources said that enraged theatre-goers had become so violent on learning that the play had been cancelled that they clashed with the Arts Council staff. They added that the Arts Council had to call in police.

“For two days, the police stopped the angry theatre-goers from trashing the property of the Arts Council. The ticket-holders were particularly angry about the fact that they could not get a refund.”

Preedy DSP Ajaz Hashmi told Dawn that the police had controlled the indignant theatre-goers with great difficulty. ”However, Mr Bashir, alias Javed Mohajir, was arrested some time back in connection with the ongoing rivalry between two criminal gangs. Two FIRs were registered by the Preedy police station and the Jauharabad police station.”