RAWALPINDI: Pakistan plans to set up a central film directorate, a film city, and a media university in a push to revive its beleaguered motion picture industry, according to a new policy document prepared by the ministry of information and broadcasting and seen by Arab News on Tuesday.
Last month, the information ministry announced it was working to overhaul the policy framework governing the country’s film and drama industry.
The draft document, called the ‘Moving Picture Policy 2021’, covers a broad spectrum of issues, ranging from the rights of artists to the holding of film festivals and the preservation of motion pictures, though critics believe it fails to cover some the most basic and vital problems confronting the industry, including censorship and funding.
Speaking to Arab News, Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the policy was still being finalized, adding that the government had shared its draft version with relevant stakeholders for their feedback.
The policy document says the proposed film development directorate would become a focal point for all films, dramas and web productions in Pakistan and play a pivotal role in their promotion.
“Film Development Directorate of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, based in Islamabad with Regional Offices in Lahore and Karachi shall be the Central Agency to encourage high quality Films, Dramas and other Moving Pictures,” the draft document said.
It also discusses exemption from custom duties on the import and export of films for a limited period while proposing low-cost tickets for tax filers.
Other than that, the document proposes “100 percent income tax exemption for at least three years” for productions entirely shot in Pakistan to revive the industry and “establish [it] as a contributor to the GDP.”
The Moving Picture Policy 2021 envisions creating a film city which will allow filmmakers to utilize centralized resources, adding that the government would engage with foreign film productions and open up the country as a desirable shooting location for international creatives.
The establishment of a media university to empower future filmmakers who want to join the field is also proposed in the document.
The institute “will be tasked to polish the talent and provide human resource in all related fields of the industry” and “create the required linkages with the international sister institutions, academia, and literati in order to diversify the imagination and horizon of its students.”
However, filmmaker and journalist Hasan Zaidi took to Twitter and said the document was “poorly drafted” and “filled with hot air.”
I’ve just read through the ‘Moving Picture Policy 2021’ by the Min of Info and Broadcasting, which will soon apparently be presented to the PM for approval. I can safely say I have rarely come across a more poorly drafted and edited official document in my life.
— Hasan Zaidi (@hyzaidi) June 14, 2021
“First, you have to identify what are the major problems that are holding back the industry,” Zaidi told Arab News. “I don’t see such a process at work here. This just comes off as a random bunch of things put together.”
He also said the proposed policy did not address vital issues such as censorship and “the arbitrary way censor boards function” in Pakistan.
He said there was no seed money available to people who wanted to make films in Pakistan, lamenting that “there is nothing about that” in the document.
