The Upper House of the Pakistani Parliament — the Senate — has allowed the import of 12 Indian movies per annum as well as co-production between the two countries.
LAHORE: The Upper House of the Pakistani Parliament — the Senate — has allowed the import of 12 Indian movies per annum as well as co-production between the two countries.
The decision was taken by the Senate’s Standing Committee on Culture at a meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday with Senator Zafar Iqbal in the chair.
The Committee had recommended that exhibitors, producers and directors may be allowed to enter into this trade.
According to Shahid Rafi, the federal secretary culture and a member of the Senate Committee, the Committee had recommended that a person who exported a Pakistani movie should be allowed to import an Indian movie within three months on the production of an Indian Censor Board certificate that the film had been censored, and a certificate from the exhibitors association that the film was released and exhibited in India.
Besides, the Pakistani importer would be bound to submit a customs clearance certificate of the prints of imported Indian film.
Rafi said the meeting was significant in the sense that the import of Indian movies and co-production had been considered the only solution to revive Pakistan’s film industry.
The ministry of culture has already prepared a summary for the prime minister recommending the import of Indian films against export of an equal number of Pakistani movies.
“The members of the committee held the view that the decision regarding exhibition of Indian films should be on a reciprocal basis and Pakistani producers must try to win a share from the very large Indian market, as the ground was really fertile for good Pakistani Urdu and Punjabi movies”, Rafi said.
Conceding that the Committee has also recommended the lifting of the government ban on the screening of the Indian movies, he said the import of more Indian movies would help cinemas generate revenue and co-production would benefit Pakistan’s film producers and local film industry.
Later, the standing committee allowed the import of twelve Indian movies and export of three Pakistani movies to India. It also allowed co-production between the two countries.
The committee gave a week to the ministry to issue a notification to this effect before announcing a clear cut policy in this regard.
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