Pakistan's prime minister convened urgent deliberations on the country's law and order situation following a major attack on the most popular Sufi Shrine last week. The double suicide bombing in the heart of Lahore at a place of worship central to the lives of millions of Pakistanis has jolted the nation and trained a spotlight on the failure of law enforcement agencies to safeguard the public.
In almost every Punjabi film, the lead actor is supposed to have a moustache which he touches as a symbol of pride. Director Syed Noor says, “The moustaches are considered an important part of a hero’s personality. Though in real life none of the young Lollywood heroes have moustaches but in movies it’s considered an integral part of a ‘solid man’.”
The ‘moustache mania’ is not limited only to Punjabi films, but is a fixation for many. One such man is Haji Razzaq, who is an employee of a cultural body in Lahore. Razzaq is a senior official and his duties include handling of the commercial theater activities other than taking care of his moustache, which he says has brought him fame.
Faced with what he called "political posturing" by Republicans over immigration reform, President Obama fought back on Thursday with some grade-A political posturing of his own.
"The system is broken, and everybody knows it," Obama said in a speech at American University. "Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing.
And special-interest wrangling and to the pervasive sentiment in Washington that tackling such a thorny and emotional issue is inherently bad politics."
A lacklustre day of cricket brought an end to the three-day warm-up match between Pakistan and English county Kent at Canterbury as both teams contended with a tame draw.The day started with Pakistan resuming at 86 for the loss of Salman Butt and top order continued to practice ahead of a tough series for the most part of the day. Umar Amin and Fawad Alam scored half centuries but failed to stretch their innings to bigger ones as both in the space of seven overs.
Umar Amin showed for the first time his ability with the bat as he amassed 73 runs from 126 balls with the help of nine boundaries. This was the highest score by any Pakistani in the second innings. Fawad Alam, on the other hand, ate up lots of time and deliveries to score unattractive 68 runs from 140 deliveries hitting eight boundaries.
The last Pakistani movie to hit cinemas was Ijaz Bajwa’s Channa Suchi Muchi in April and since then not a single producer or director has announced any new ventures. Virsa, an Indo-Pak joint production could not do well at the box office despite receiving support from the Censor Board, cinema owners and the Culture Ministry.
It was expected that the budget would include an allocation for the film industry, but that did not pan out. The two feuding groups of Lollywood (led by Amjad Farzand Ali and Sangeeta respectively) have been silent for the last few months and are avoiding giving any statements to the press.
Ali Zafar On the sets of ‘Tere Bin Laden’, everyone got panic attacks as the Pakistani singer turned actor met a minor accident and suffered from temporary memory less.
Ali Zafar must have been shocked more than the unit members of the movie’ Tere Bin Laden’. During the shooting, Ali was supposed to ride a bike, but suddenly the brakes of the bikes failed. Within seconds he fell headfirst on the ground.
Due to the minor accident, the actor came under a state of temporary amnesia and the whole team got panicked. A production member adds, “Ali had minor scratches and bruises after the fall.
He also began asking strange questions and couldn’t remember where he was or how he got there.The production team had to rush Ali to a hospital.”
“Ali kept asking ‘How did I get to India? What am I doing here?’ and other questions that left us perplexed. The doctor advised him to rest.
And Ali took a day off to recuperate.” The questions fired by Ali of a sudden startled everyone and everyone is waiting for him to become fit and fine as before.
The once booming Pakistani film industry known as Lollywood—a term coined by Glamour magazine in 1989 is on its last legs. The Karachi-based magazine that created the neologism is defunct. The industry survived many setbacks. After its most successful era, spanning the 1960s and 1970s, it suffered a huge blow after Gen. Zia-ul-Haq’s military coup in 1977.
Haq’s Islamization of the country led to the forcible closure of many theatres and stringent censor laws forced film-makers to abandon popular themes of love and jealousy.The industry saw some resurgence when Gen. Pervez Musharraf served as president (2001-2008).
Seen by many as a patron of the arts, even he couldn’t reverse the downward spiral the industry had fallen into. Cable television and pirated DVDs of local and international cinema had their own roles to play in strangling what was once a cultural institution.
United Film Association of Pakistan (UFAP) led by Amjad Farzand and Film Federation of Pakistan (FFP) led by Sangeeta had decided to call a truce in a meeting chaired by the Senate Standing Committee on Culture and Tourism Chairman Nilofar Bakhtiar in Lahore. However, the two groups have once again separated from each other on ‘ideological grounds’, according to Sangeeta.
Sangeeta had earlier agreed to become the vice chairman of UFAP but then backed out quoting her differences with the UFAP. Sangeeta told The Express Tribune that she was making films and not mere claims. She said that three of her movies would hit the cinemas soon.
“Two Punjabi and one Urdu movie will be released by the end of this month. I am hopeful these movies will do well at the box office,” she said. Sangeeta alleged that UFAP was dominated by producers who just made claims, while her association represented technicians of the film industry.
Office bearers of the United Film Association of Pakistan (UFAP) were very ‘depressed’ after finding out that the government had not reserved any additional funds in the federal budget. However, their hopes were somewhat restored on Monday when senior government officials said that funds would be allocated for the film industry through a special grant.
A source told The Express Tribune that funds for the establishment of a digital lab would be given through a special grant. The chairperson of the Standing Committee on Culture and Tourism Chairman Nilofar Bakhtiar also confirmed that the government had not given up the idea of funding the revival of the film industry.
The United States has voiced confidence in Pakistan’s continued success against terrorists as a senior diplomat noted Islamabad’s critical role for peace and security in the region.“They have taken important steps in Swat, in South Waziristan, and I think that they will continue to make progress in that area as their military forces can be mobilized to address this threat,” Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake said.
Washington, he said, has been encouraged by the Pakistani government’s pledge to not allow their soil to be used by extremist groups for attacks against any other country. The US diplomat reminded the Indian critics of the fact that Pakistan has been the biggest victim of terrorism. “It’s easy to forget that Pakistan is the country that has suffered most from terrorism.”
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