LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has been asked to put a complete ban on trade, exhibition and selling of Indian films in Pakistan to reciprocate a ban on Pakistani actors/singers working in Bollywood in the wake of Pulwama attack.

A citizen namely Sheikh Muhammad Latif filed a petition pleading through his counsel that the Import Policy Order 2016 announced by the federal government had banned import of all Indian films and other content.

However, he stated, the then prime minister through a notification of the Ministry of Information on Jan 31, 2017, announced that display of all international movies including Indian films in Pakistan would continue under the garb of revival of Pakistani film and cinema industry.

The petitioner submited that the notification was unlawful as it had not been approved by the federal cabinet, which was mandatory under a Supreme Court judgment in Mustafa Impex case of 2012.

He pointed out that after the recent terror attack in Pulwama (India held Kashmir), the All Indian Cine Workers officially announced a total ban on Pakistani actors working in Indian film industry and also banned songs sung by Pakistani singers.

The petitioner pleaded that the Supreme Court in a recent judgment ordered the government to take strict action against airing of Indian content on television channels.

He asked the court to set aside the impugned notification of Jan 31, 2017, for being unlawful and direct the government to impose a complete ban on exhibition of Indian films and other content in view of the SC order.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2019