Cultural, film policies soon: minister

Islamabad: Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyam Aurangzeb on Friday said the government would announce the cultural and film policies soon to ensure systematic and integrated mainstreaming of cultural and ethnic cohesiveness.

Speaking at the curtain-raiser of the first ever National Artists Convention and the CPEC Cultural Caravan Festival here at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), she said both grand events would pave a path for long lasting cultural impact across frontiers.

"With the emergence of CPEC, the cultural fusion would add more colours of ethnic identities and values to the regional interactions among the people," she said. The minister said the government has laid the foundation of National Film Academy, National Centre of Excellence for Performing Arts, academies for music theatre, and visual arts.

The cultural revolution is in the offing that would bring a lasting socio-professional change in the lives of the artists in the days to come. The minister said that Pakistan government has put in huge investments in cultural mainstreaming and promotion for the ethnic and cross cultural cohesiveness.

The artists community has been facing the similar challenges of extremism and terrorism as the entire nation was caught in for over three decades. The CPEC Cultural Caravan Festival and the Artists Convention would take off on Saturday morning at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts while the closing ceremony of the 9th National Art Exhibition and the CPEC Cultural Caravan Festival would take place on Monday at the Pak-China Friendship Centre.

PNCA Director General Syed Jamal Shah said all the grand events would leave a significant cultural impact at home and abroad. Support to these initiatives shows the government’s patronage towards promoting and mainstreaming the Pakistani culture to wipe off the ambiguous notions about the country.

He said the government has very generously provided funds for the culturally important interventions. Recently, the government has also approved the PC-II of the National Film Academy and has provided Rs55 million for the feasibility study and the design competition.

The government has approved another five PSDP projects including National Centre of Excellence for Performing Arts, up-gradation of technical facilities for the film projection, construction of a restaurant along with souvenir shop, installation of multilingual multimedia information system for the visitors of the National Art Gallery and the PNCA open air theatre.

The DG of the PNCA said that the Cultural Caravan has provided a platform where exchange of ideas, cultures and norms took place among people of opposing backgrounds, cultural norms and values. The joint artistic tour particularly helped pave way for the participants and in the long term general masses of both Pakistan and China to develop a strong bond based on cultural ideals.

It has helped artists of both countries in attaining a better insight regarding the local culture, art and musical variety of Pakistan as well as China. He said the ninth grand art show is dedicated to the nine legendary artists of Pakistan including Ahmed Khan, Bashir Ahmad, Colin David (late), Hajra Mansur, Ijaz ul Hassan, Mansur Rahi, Iqbal Geofrey, Saeed Akhtar and Zulqarnain Haider.

As many as 556 paintings and 140 sculptures and installations by 384 artists from all over the country were put on display that attracted a huge number of art lovers. The Caravan had a strong impact on the cultural spectrum of both the countries. For starters, it helped to diminish the boundaries and stressed that cultural exchange has a pivotal role to play in this respect.

Similarly, it has opened ways for countless opportunities for the two countries such as, combined film initiative, economic development and most importantly dissemination of cultural, traditional and such other notions between Pakistan and China.

Responding to a question, Jamal shah said, National Artists Convention is a moot of renowned Pakistani artists from all the fields to discuss the validity of art and culture and to ponder upon the challenges faced by arts and artists.

The artists will deliberate on important issues and prepare a charter of demands for consideration. The convention has invited the leading names of various forms of art to one platform to discuss threadbare cultural issues and conclude with recommendations for submission to the authorities to take necessary steps to alleviate the condition of the artists and try to remove ambiguities prevailing in various fields of arts because of certain state neglect and interest groups promoting their vested influence.