KARACHI, July 11: Cable operators screening movies, mostly pirated ones, on their networks have dealt a fatal blow to the already dying cinema industry in the country.

The Pakistan Film Exhibitors’ Association (PFEA) of the Sindh and Balochistan region has been protesting over what it terms, and with reasons, the inability of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) as well as that of the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC), to stop cable operators from showing movies on their networks and to check the public exhibition of movies, other than at cinemas.

“All rules are being blatantly flouted by, cable operators, clubs, hotels and restaurants, which have been reaping profits by exhibiting films, both English and Indian, on DVD or video and VCD formats,” representatives of the PFEA told Dawn on Friday.

They alleged that most of these establishments were charging exorbitant admission tickets while clubs charged their members a monthly fee for showing a film every week. “These establishments have no regard for the laws of the land which prohibit Indian films even coming into Pakistan and also usurp the right of importers and distributors of English films, imported by them at substantial cost for theatrical exhibition at cinemas after paying duties and taxes and getting approval of the Islamabad- based Central Board of Film Censors,” they said.

They told Dawn that piracy had become so rampant in Pakistan that the country ranked third, after China and Malaysia, in film piracy. “A case in point is the recently released Indian film Devdas. At least 50,000 DVD copies of the film were allegedly smuggled back to India after being manufactured in Pakistan.”

The PFEA representatives claimed that an increasing number of clubs, restaurants and eateries not only showed movies on their premises, without any lawful authority, but also distributed promotional material in advance.

A letter sent by the CBFC admits that piracy of foreign films on DVD or VCD formats was rampant in the country. It says: “There are more than one hundred thousand outlets or retail establishments in the country dealing in this illegal business unchecked...Unfortunately the CBFC, under the Motion Pictures Ordinance 1979, has no powers to control and check this illegal business of foreign pirated films on cable system, videos, DVDs and CDs. As a matter of fact, the subject falls under the purview of the PEMRA which functions under the administrative control of the ministry of information and media development.”

Zulfiqar Ramzi, a cinema owner, told Dawn that in the early 1970s there had been at least 110 cinemas in the city. He added that at present there were only 45 cinemas in Karachi. “Till 1965, local cinemas used to run Indian movies. At that time Pakistani movies not only competed with Indian movies but also beat them. The standard of Pakistani movies was also very good.”

He said that by running English movies the cable operators had affected the cinema business very much. “It is interesting to note that the moment a cinema announced that it would show a certain movie the cable operators show the same movie on their network without the slightest compunction. It naturally affects our business.”

He said that in Pakistan the government was so particular about censorship that the censor criteria for TV were much stricter than the censor criteria for cinemas. “Nevertheless, the same government allows the cable operators to run uncensored movies.”