Shehryar Afridi urges artists to work with Kashmir Committee to preserve Kashmiri culture

Islamabad : Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, Shehryar Khan Afridi has urged the Kashmir activists to work together with Kashmir Committee to help preserve, project and proliferate Kashmir issue with its cultural aspect as fascist Hindutva agents are trying to damage cultural heritage of Kashmir.

India’s occupational regime was making last ditch efforts to keep Kashmir occupied and were employing all dirty tricks to damage the identity and culture of Kashmir, Afridi expressed these views in a meeting with eminent actor, Shaan Shahid, here on Saturday.

Shaan was accompanied by a delegation of his colleagues.

He said recent moves by Delhi in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) prove that the demographic change plan has a principal component of efforts to damage the identity and cultural fabric and heritage of Kashmir.

“Hindutva regime has understood the fact that resistance runs in blood and breath of the Kashmiri people and hence efforts are on to damage the Kashmiri culture. Moreover, Kashmiri heritage is also being targeted during military operations in across Kashmir,” said the Kashmir Committee Chairman.

Afridi said in this age of information, cultural onslaught has been launched to target Pakistani culture and the federal and provincial governments would do whatever they can to preserve and protect our culture.

Ahsan Mashkoor, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the tech-house Square, urged the committee to give distribution of content equal importance to content creation.

He promised the delegation to become its technological arm, which would abet the committee in Digital Content Distribution through the latest technical tools.

"Google is the greatest information aggregator in history, and two things win at google, Volume of content and Quality of Content.

Therefore, we need to ensure that we create an amalgamation of the aforementioned qualities so that our narrative remains relevant.

"Lauding the services of Shaan Shahid, Afridi said that late Riaz Shahid, Neelo Begum and Shaan have rendered unmatched services projecting Pakistani film industry and they are pride and assets of the country.

Shaan Shahid said Pakistani culture was under attack from all sides as the past regimes "have left our cultural front open".

“Culture is the biggest exportable asset today. We need to create a culture-friendly society. We have to guard our cultural borders and need to bring our artists to the national mainstream. We have done little in past 72 years but immediate steps should be taken to protect our cultural heritage,” he added.

Shaan said his team would help Kashmir committee and other stakeholders in building narrative on Kashmir and projecting Kashmiri culture through films and drama.

He underscored the need to engage artists in mainstream art institutions, adding that artists did not need donations and rather they need projects with a direction.

"The cultural invasion has badly affected Pakistani youth and they no more know their culture, history and religious values," he said.

“No society is normal without entertainment. Film, music and drama is our exportable material and sky is the limit. The foreign content is confusing our youth and they are losing hope and interest in life. This is leading the youth to boredom, drugs and suicides. Since we have limited options in sports, we need to open our institutions and engage our artists to project our culture. We need to construct cultural centers where our artists teach art to the youth,” he said.

Pakistan might give a direction and artists would look after the commercial aspect.