LAHORE: The commercial theatre actors, producers, directors and other stakeholders have reiterated their demand of reopening of theatres in Punjab, warning the government of launching a hunger strike in front of the CM House in Lahore and other cities after a week if it does not accept their demand.

They declared that the commercial theatres would follow all the standard operating procedures (SOPS) required for the Covid-19.

Many theatre artistes, including Naseem Vicky, Iftikhar Thakur and Amanat Chan, have highlighted the concerns of their colleagues as well as all other stakeholders.

Naseem Vicky demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan to open commercial theatres business to save the artistes from hunger. He said the government was doing nothing for artistes. Referring to PM Imran Khan’s statement on allocation of Rs1bn for the artistes, he asked about the whereabouts of the allocation. He said Imran Khan should keep Rs1bn with him but allow the actors to open theatres.

Commercial Theatre Action Committee Chairman Qaiser Sanaullah said if the government would not open theatres, about 15,000 people associated with them would observe hunger strike in the province. He said the artistes gave millions of rupees to the government as tax but they were getting nothing in return.

Iftikhar Thakur appealed for urgent opening of theatres as the poor and the needy artistes had no place to go for work.

Actor Rashid Mehmood took the PTI government to task for not opening theatres, saying he hadn’t seen such a government all his life as it had a hatred for artistes.

Actor Shahid Khan said the government was insensitive towards artistes. The theatre artistes had held a press conference on July 15 also in which they had made similar statements and demands. Representatives from all the main centres of commercial theatre in Punjab, including

Multan, Rawalpindi, Sahiwal and Faisalabad, had participated in the press conference.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2020