As the country’s film industry shows no signs of revival, many prominent personalities have once again demanded that the government pay due attention to it.

Syed Noor, who is president of the Film Producers Association, Mustafa Qureshi, Ghulam Mohyuddin and Shahzad Rafique have urged the government to allocate Rs1 billion for the revival of the industry in the budget.

Mr Rafique has gone to the extent of threatening protest demonstrations if the demand is not met.

The stakeholders have not made it clear how they plan to spend the budget to mobilise the industry and who should be assigned the monitoring role.

Film circles on Saturday observed the 15th death anniversary of folk and playback singer, actor and producer Inayat Hussain Bhatti.

Bhatti had a huge contribution to the Pakistani film industry as an actor and a singer.

He won plaudits for singing the ‘kalam’ of Baba Bulleh Shah, Khwaja Ghulam Farid, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh and other Sufi poets.

He earned recognition for his film ‘Heer’ in which he played the role of Ranjha opposite Saurn Lata.

Lahore Arts Council Executive Director Muhammad Ali Baloch has been transferred as Board of Revenue member. He will work with additional charge of the council till appointment of an executive director.

Among various development works, the council has recently installed CCTV cameras at the Alhamra Art Center, The Mall, to ensure security. Such gadgets will also be installed at the Alhamra Cultural Complex near Qadhafi Stadium.

The paintings and drawings by Shakir Ali remain in a state of neglect at the Shakir Ali Museum, a subsidiary of the Pakistan National Council of Arts.

The museum management has time and again sent reminders to the PNCA head office in Islamabad for the restoration of these paintings but nothing significant has been done so far.

Shakir Ali Museum Director Amna Pataudi told Dawn that the museum had sent many reminders to the head office which claimed that the artworks restoration unit set up by the federal government would be sent to the museum to assess the 18 works.

PNCA Director-General Mashhood Mirza said they had established a conservation lab where the damaged artworks (of Shakir Ali) would be taken one by one for restoration.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2014