KARACHI: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Friday that the government was very keen to set into motion an effective process for the film industry’s revival.
She was addressing the Consultative Conference at Karachi, convened for the formulation of the national policy on film, production and broadcast.
“The purpose of the consultative process is to ascertain the views of all the stakeholders and seek their input with a view to evolve a policy that is comprehensive in scope and can help in achieving the desired objectives,” she said.
Marriyum said that Pakistan had a very vibrant and thriving film industry in the sixties and seventies which served as an effective forum not only to provide entertainment to the masses, but also to reinforce the cultural values and the national heritage that had a galvanizing impact on national integration and unity.
“The industry failed to counter the onslaught of the other mediums like internet and the digital technologies in the absence of patronage at the official level and a pragmatic strategy to deal with the emerging challenges,” she said.
“The continuous nosedive and decline in the film industry is a great national loss in terms of ideological moorings as the new developments obscured the role of the film and broadcast production in promoting and strengthening cultural values and the national heritage,” she said.
The minister observed that the emergence of fissiparous tendencies in the society and the narratives of religious extremism and terrorism over the last 35 years were undoubtedly the disastrous consequences of the absence of a powerful medium like films to help in the development of a credible and effective counter-narrative. “Though some brave and enterprising elements are still in the business, but their efforts are not enough in the prevailing debilitating environment. Pakistanis were a resilient nation and the armed forces of the country. The prime minister feels that the fight against terrorism needs to be supplemented by an ideological counter-narrative to challenge the narrative of the enemies of the country,” she said.
She said that in the estimation of the PM, films were the most powerful medium to achieve that objective and a comprehensive policy for the revival and development of film, production and broadcast policy was needed.
“Because of the permeating culture of religious extremism, terrorism and intolerance, the image of the country had been badly tarnished in the comity of nations as well, but our first priority was to set the things right on the internal front which would also help us in dealing with the image problem at the international level,” she said.
The inaugural session was attended by Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair, Senator Nihal Hashmi, film producers, artists, exhibitors, distributors and other stakeholders associated with film and broadcast production industry.
