Pakistan’s federal cabinet has directed the country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to make a list of all foreign films exported to Pakistan for viewing, adding that Indian movies should be excluded.

The reason for such an exclusion of Indian films is because of opposition from security agencies from screening flicks from across the border in Pakistan, according to Pakistani business daily  Business Recorder.

The whole exercise of making a list of imported films started when earlier this month the Pakistani Prime Minister’s Office directed the MIB to examine the possibility of allowing import of non-Indian Punjabi films in consultation with relevant stakeholders.

The Pakistani daily reported there had been a long pending demand of the Pakistan Film Producers Association seeking permission for import of non-Indian Punjabi movies, a move that possibly could revive the Pakistani cinema industry and give impetus to production of local movies.

After consulting other relevant stakeholders, including government agencies, the Pakistani MIB came up with certain yardsticks that were to be followed for import of non-Indian Punjabi language films.

According to Business Recorder, the conditions for imports included the following, among others:

(i)           Language of film must be predominantly in Punjabi.

(ii)         60 percent of the film’s shooting should be done outside of India.

(iii)        Film ownership rights are held by a foreign producer, excluding Indians.

(iv)       Certificate of origin of the film must be from a foreign country, excluding India.

(v)         All other aspects of National Security as mentioned in the Code of Censorship notified by the Government of Pakistan should be followed.

These conditions for imports were shared with Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies. They observed since most such Punjabi movies were made by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who would eventually earn revenues from ticket sales in Pakistan, benefitting the Indian Government too in terms of taxes, a status quo should be maintained of disallowing films with any Indian link.

Despite a demand from the local industry for non-Indian Punjabi films, the Pakistani authorities are going slow on taking any decision on imported Punjabi films, the media report stated.