October 01, 2006	Sunday	Ramazan 7, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Sept 30: Criticising the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government for ordering the closure of cinema houses in the NWFP during Ramazan, the local cinema-owners and movie-makers have demanded Rs5 million of the provincial government for paying salaries to their employees.

“Only 11 cinema houses in the city are in running condition. Scores of others have been converted into shopping plazas owning to the falling business,” said Nadir Khan, a Pashto film director.

He said that the closure of all cinema houses in Ramazan made no sense as it was the government’s responsibility to check the quality of movies and penalise those involved in screening of indecent films.

“Thousands of people are associated with the film industry and it is difficult for cinema-owners to pay them their salaries for the month of Ramazan,” he said.

Film-maker Muzaffar Khan said that Pashto films had already lost ground to English, Urdu and Punjabi films in the Frontier province, because of huge taxes and lack of facilities. The closure of cinemas during Ramazan would further affect the actors, actresses, musicians, technicians besides those involved in the publicity campaigns of the films.

“The MMA government has been very strict on the showbiz in the province. Due to ban on music, art and theatre activities, hundreds of performers have migrated to Karachi and Lahore to earn their livelihood,” he said, adding that now those attached with the business of films in this part of the country were facing the same situation.

Actor Arshad Khan believed that closure of cinema houses for one month would also cost the government huge losses in terms of taxes, which had been waived for the month of Ramazan.

“But, we need at least Rs5 million to pay salaries to about 500 employees of the 12 cinema houses in the city,” he said, adding that the provincial culture department should allocate funds for the daily wagers, who had been rendered jobless in the wake of the ban on screening of movies in Ramazan.

Mr Khan said that the film-makers were extended financial and moral assistance by the governments in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. But in the NWFP, cultural activities had suffered a great setback after the MMA came into power here, he added. He said they had long been asking the government to help them capture markets in Afghanistan.

“Most of our viewers are Afghan refugees in the city. An agreement with the Afghan government on the screening of Pashto films there, can give us a big boost,” he said.

He said Pashto films had already been banned in the UAE after the screening of some indecent and vulgar movies by non-Pakhtoon film-makers.

“The government should contact the authorities in the UAE so that we could resume screening of Pashto films there,” he demanded.