LAHORE, March 15: City artistes will meet on Saturday (today) under the chairmanship of provincial cultural secretary Kamran Lashari to devise a code of conduct for commercial theatre.

The crisis in the commercial theatre was triggered recently when local police picked up local artistes. Since then, the artistes were divided into two groups —- one favouring a code of conduct while the other questioning the logic for putting art under official check.

Commenting on the meeting, Mr Qavi Khan, a well-known artiste, said he was not aware what kind of a code of conduct would be formed. He said commercial theatre and drama were being staged under the 1875 censor policy. During these years, concepts like self-censorship and a code of conduct had crept in. Different official bodies like the Punjab Art Council and the Information Ministry had also tried to control and censor drama. But, one was not sure, what kind of policy this government wanted to pursue.

The government should have banned artistes promoting vulgarity instead of arresting a number of actors, the other artistes said.