Zubair Qureshi
Well-reputed Pakistani-British filmmaker, singer, actor and producer Yasir Akhtar has moved a public petition (PP-3788) in the Senate of Pakistan against the state-run Pakistan Television that had signed an agreement with him in November 2019 for airing 12 films he would provide, one of which had already been handed over, approved and censored by PTV but is now reluctant to abide by the contract.
According to the petitioner, before finalization, the agreement was wetted and debated at length and then signed on Nov 28, 2019 with mutual consent of his company Pegasus Productions and the PTV.
However, the TV administration delayed its release and all of a sudden, after two months of signing the contract, sent an addendum in January 2020, with some conditions that were not acceptable to his company.
On our objection to the addendum, release of my film was delayed and the PTV admin kept forcing us to sign the addendum with clauses which were never part and were against of the binding contract.
“Now, it has been more than 18 months since the first film was approved and censored, the project of multiple films is on hold.
The delay is causing severe losses to me, the Exchequer and to all those involved in the project” said the artist cum filmmaker adding he belonged to a noble and prestigious family and was trying to work on something original to showcase Pakistan’s positive image in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and to attract investment in the country through his multiple films project.
In his petition, Yasir Akhtar has appealed to the Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani and the Standing Committee of the Upper House of the Parliament to get the matter resolved as it is a mega project aimed at promoting original content instead of re-telecasting productions of local and foreign channels.
Pakistan Observer in order to get the view of the PTV and the Information and Broadcast Ministry tried to contact MD PTV, Director Programs and a number of other officials but they declined to comment.
One of the officers wishing not to be named said the matter would be resolved amicably and things were moving in the right direction.
