LAHORE, March 16: The Punjab governor has approved opening of a performing arts university at Alhamra Arts Council.

Information and Culture Secretary Kamran Lashari said this on Saturday. He was presiding over a meeting of artistes convened to develop a consensus on code of conduct for commercial theatre.

An institute would be opened at Alhamra which would be upgraded to university shortly.

In addition, the Punjab government has also decided to give Alhamra halls free to those producing quality plays. This would bring down production cost and promote art, he said. The government, if need be, would also contribute for promoting better scripts and performances.

Almost all noted artistes who participated in the meeting were unanimous that absence of script at the stage has damaged drama beyond redemption. This was a dangerous trend that needed to be checked. But picking up artistes by police was wrong and should not be repeated.

Mr Lashari assured the artistes that police or any other law-enforcing agency would not be involved in future. The culture ministry, through a community committee, would implement a code of conduct that was to be based on acceptable societal ethos. The government, he said wanted to get on with art business.

He promised to strengthen script monitoring and responsibility for any vulgarity to be shared among actors, producer, writer and promoter. It was to punish actors when others were equally responsible for degradation.

Playwright Dr Enver Sajjad pleaded for implementation of the decisions taken at meeting and recalled the promises which were never fulfilled.