ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: The chairman of the Central Censor Board has sought magisterial powers in order to ensure swift action against the cinema houses violating the law.

Sources told Dawn that the Chairman of the board, Ziauddin, had sent a request to the authorities concerned seeking magisterial powers for action against the cinema houses indulged in forgery of censor certificates.

They said censor certificates were given for five years to screen English films, but many cinema houses continued to show the films even after the period and sometimes fraudulently changed dates on the certificates.

Likewise, some cinema houses also screened the scenes censored from Punjabi and Urdu films.

The censor inspectors send reports on such violations of law to the chairman of the board. The chairman can take action on the basis of reports with the help of district coordination officers or nazims, which means waste of time and money.

The sources said the performance of most of the censor inspectors was also not satisfactory, adding that the board had decided to appoint honorary inspectors.