LAHORE, March 3: Apprehending reaction from extremist religious groups, the Punjab home secretary on Saturday asked cinema houses, theatres and cable operators to immediately stop presenting vulgar shows and programmes that could irritate such elements.

The direction was given at a meeting reportedly held at the Civil Secretariat. It was attended by secretaries of the departments concerned, DCOs of Gujranwala and Faisalabad and representatives of the Punjab based associations of cinema houses, theatres and cable operators.

Sources said the home secretary feared that continuation of the present trends in the cinema houses, theatres and cable network could invite any reaction from the extremist religious groups.

Therefore, he reportedly asked the showbiz representatives to adopt a self-regulatory system to avoid any reaction.

Officials said the representatives were asked to self-regulate their programmes because there was no law or mechanism in the province to control them. —Intikhab Hanif