PESHAWAR, July 7: A delegation of Pashto film-makers plans to visit Afghanistan to explore the market of Pashto films in that country.

The local film-makers told reporters here on Wednesday that the local film industry was passing through trying times, because of scores of taxes levied by the government.

"We have been seriously thinking to explore markets for our productions in Afghanistan. The Afghans being the traditional viewers of Pakistani films, our films may attract them again," said Tanveer Khan, a local film-maker.

According to him, the Peshawar-based cinema houses were being frequently visited by the Afghan refugees and the return of peace to Afghanistan would pave the way for the local film-makers to capture markets there.

He said the local movies has suffered a great deal in the wake of the MMA government's campaign against cinema houses. The government has imposed a ban on display of signboards on cinema houses, which he said had caused immense harm to the film industry.

Some 37 cinema houses in the province are on razor's edge, because of the heavy taxes imposed on them. Though the government of Punjab had already done away with entertainment and ticket tax, which had greatly helped the cinema there, he said.

"The bulk of our income goes in taxes, electricity bills, workers' salaries and maintenance costs", said another film maker. We pay 65 per cent of our income in taxes, but got no facility from the government, he said.

Three years ago, the local film industry had suffered a severe blow when the UAE's rulers had imposed a ban on the screening of Pashto films, he said and added that not all of the cinema-owners were involved in screening vulgar movies, only a few of them had made things worse and it was the responsibility of police and law-enforcement agencies to put brakes on them.

"We demand from the government to help us in reaching the international market, because millions of Pukhtuns are scattered around the globe, who do not have opportunities of watching Pashto movies", he said.

"We also plan to meet the chief minister and federal commerce minister to exempt us from taxes. We have already started making quality films, because the young generation wanted to watch better movies", they said. Moreover, the advent of satellite channels had set the ball rolling for a positive competition, they said.