HYDERABAD, Aug 4 Noted TV and stage artiste, Gulab Chandio, has lashed out at a major Sindhi TV channel and the ministry of culture and tourism for their callous attitude towards the artistes and warned that if the said TV channel and the ministry did not arrange proper medical treatment for TV artiste Hussain Sario within a week, the artistes of Sindh will not only launch a movement in Sindh but right from Karachi to Khyber.

Speaking at a news conference along with Abid Naveed, Hayat Ali Shah Bukhari and Nadir Baloch, at the press club here on Tuesday, Gulab Chandio said that the owners of the TV channel had earned billions of rupees due to the artistes but they had done nothing whatsoever for those who had made them billionaires.

The programmes presented on this TV channel are shameful, he said and added that the said TV channel has not only distorted but destroyed the culture of Sindh.

“The vulgar programmes being presented on the TV channel have ashamed the entire Sindhi nation”, Chandio said. He alleged that this TV channel has totally ignored the senior artistes and was exploiting the unknown artistes by paying them only Rs1,500 to Rs2,000 per episode.

He said Hussain Sario, who had worked on this TV channel, was suffering from cancer but he was neither being helped by the TV channel nor by the ministry of culture and tourism. He said the secretary culture had visited Hussain Sario but gave him no help.

He said the artistes were living in abject poverty and their children were being deprived of education. He said those artistes who are working on this particular TV channel, were not allowed to work on any other TV channel.

He charged that even the playwrights were being asked to pay back half of the amount they got for writing a drama. Chandio was, however, all praise for PTV and said that the artistes are respected and honoured by the PTV and paid Rs10,000 per episode. It is PTV which has introduced the artistes even beyond the boundaries of Pakistan, Mr Chandio said.

He thanked MQM chief Altaf Hussain and Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan for helping the artistes.