LAHORE: The Alhamra Café, a vital venue for the visitors and artistes at the Alhamra Art Centre, Mall Road, has been closed down as its year-long contract has been cancelled by Lahore Arts Council (LAC) Executive Director Nazia Jabeen over the alleged hygiene and cleanliness issues.

The contractor was being awarded a contract every year for the last 15 years; however, no keen attention was paid to it by the Alhamra administration during the previous years.

Ms Jabeen recently visited the café and found it in a deplorable condition as there was a great dearth of cleanliness at the café while the food also was not of good standard. She directed the staff concerned to announce a new bid for the canteen and get some new contractor. The current contractor’s contract is also about to end, which was for one year.

LAC Deputy Director (Admin) Khurram Naveel, when contacted in this regard, said the council was in process of new bidding for the café. “We are trying to engage some reputed food supplier for quality food through the bidding process, which will be completed during Ramazan. On Eid, a new contractor will get the charge of the cafeteria”.

Bidding for new contractor in process

Khurram said Alhamra was a premier cultural body of the city and its cafe should be of some standard, having quality food and a refreshing ambiance.

It may be mentioned here that the Alhamra Cultural Complex, Qaddafi Stadium does not have any proper café but just a small kiosk where one could find only tea and biscuits. At Alhamra Art Centre, Mall Road, only sandwiches, biscuits and tea are available there is no arrangement for proper lunch for the staff.

Ms Jabeen has asked the staff to remove the current promotional boards of commercial theatre from the main entrance to the council to be replaced by the promotional boards having some aesthetic approach. She sought improvement in the ticket box office also.

Earlier in a meeting, Ms Jabeen directed the staff to make arrangements for holding parallel theatre festivals and invite the youth from colleges and universities to do theatre from the platform of Alhamra. The youth would be provided all possible facilities to hold theatrical activity at Alhamra. The meeting also decided that the LAC would hold its own theatrical productions after every three months featuring artistes not only from Alhamra Academy of Performing Arts but also from different private youth theatre groups and dramatic societies. She emphasized the need to come up with theatrical productions, especially based on literature.

The LAC will also bring to light the drama scripts lying with its archive department to be performed for Alhamra productions. These scripts were written by noted playwrights of their time. A souvenir shop would also be opened at Alhamra, featuring the rich cultural heritage of Punjab.

In another meeting, arrangements for the 19th Annual Alhamra Young Artist Exhibition at the Alhamra Arts Centre were reviewed. The meeting was chaired by the LAC executive director. The staff briefed her on the preparations. This year the show will feature about 500 works by the artists from across the country. The exhibition will be held in the last week of the current month.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2023