LAHORE: There was a big turnout on the second day of the three-day Faiz Festival being held at Alhamra Art Centre, Mall Road with many thought-provoking sessions. One of them was titled, Television Daramo Ka Irtaqa Aur Zawal.

The panelists, Marina Khan, Aside Raza Mir, Mustafa Afridi and Atiqa Odho, explored various aspects of the TV industry. It was a well attended session, moderated by Tauseeq Haider.

The key question was whether there was a degradation in TV plays or all was going fine. Marina Khan said when she started acting it was PTV, later as TV drama went into private production, the decline started with it. “But we can’t say that there was a decline in our TV plays presently as our plays are being watched world over”.

She said there was a massive audience out there that only watched TV where there is no Internet. The stuff Pakistani plays are producing is just amazing, she added. But she underlined the need for an educated lot in the technical department of television, young boys and girls who should know the craft.

Asif Raza Mir was of the view that there wasn’t any decline or degradation in present day TV plays. “Rather we are going in a new direction and the problem is that we do our comparison with PTV which should not be done.”

He said now it’s time that viewers decide which play was good or bad due to YouTube ratings that go in billions for certain plays. He added that there was a big range of actors and directors.

Attiqa Odho said there was a great commercial success when it comes to TV plays “but our narrative is weak and we don’t show or tell stories of our heroes, the real stories and the original ones. Stories we are telling are not based on truth. Stories should be made on our legends and heroes”. Odho stressed the need for originality in content.

Writer Mustafa Afridi said there was no decline in TV plays. He said wrong comparisons should not be made and it would be injustice to him if somebody compared his writing with Haseena Moin or Ashfaq Ahmed because they were legends. He said young writers should come forward in script writing but for they should be well-read.

At the festival Rafi Peer Theater puppet show which was held on the lawns attracted a large audience, especially children.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2026