PESHAWAR, Dec 24: Cinema owners, criticizing the campaign against their business by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s government, on Tuesday said that the government should provide incentives to the film industry to enable them to screen films in line with the Muslim culture and traditions.

“The inspector-general of police, on the directives of Chief Minister Akram Durrani, is leading the campaign against the cinema halls in the city. People are being killed every now and then but the IG is only interested in removal of billboards from the cinemas,” said a cinema owner.

According to him, the MMA’s leaders should provide incentives to the cinema owners so that the industry could be revived.

Several cinemas in the province had been closed and their buildings converted into shopping malls owing to the decline in the business and the recent drive  would force the closure of many more, he said.

The government, instead of singling out the issue, should try to bring improvement in the entire system, said a student. He said that all the government’s energies were being wasted in removal of signboards from cinemas, as if there was no other problem.

The owners argue that all the 37 cinemas in the province weren’t involved in exhibition of objectionable movies but a few had made a mess of the situation. Of the 10 cinemas in the city, two were allegedly involved in showing objectionable movies.

“We are professional people and we have been attached with the business for 50 years. Cinema owners pay 65 per cent of their earnings in taxes,” said the manager of a cinema in the cantonment.

He said the drive would play havoc with the business on which thousands of people depended.

He said glamour was a part of show business and the viewers would stop going to cinemas if the factor was abolished.

There were no proper laws in this regard and if there were some, they lacked implementation, he insisted.

A famous Pushto film-maker asked why the government was not taking notice of the vulgarity allegedly screened by Pakistan Television. “The government should give facilities to the cinema owners, like India, where the  film-makers earn billions of rupees in foreign exchange for their country,” he said.

The budget for a local film was around Rs1 million while in India films had been accorded the status of an industry and were being extended loans that encouraged the film-makers to produce films in line with their traditions that could compete in the international market, an expert said.

About two years back, the Pushto film-makers suffered a setback when the United Arab Emirates government banned the exhibition of their films.

The film-makers say they are unable to produce better films without government’s patronage and therefore some cinema owners resort to indecent practices to meet their expenses.

A cinema house manager said the law enforcement agencies knew the people who showed films falling short of moral and religious standards but the government could not take action against the influential people due to unknown reasons.