(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
production rate as compared to 50s, Musharraf’s new millennium shows a 48.5%, 57%, and 50%
downfall respectively as compared to Yahya, Bhutto, and Zia’s periods. The production rate was
only 46%, 39%, and 50% of the three respectively. This rate equals 94% of the rate in Ayub’s
regime, but that also implies that Musharraf’s regime positioned the Pakistani cinema half a
century behind. Its culmination reflects further downfall to the figures of 1957 in 2008, and 1955
in 2009 just because of the cable (Fig. 3). Clearly, the cinema declined, but media flourished in
Musharraf’s period and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) was formed
to control and regularize the performance of illegal cable TV channels (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 The comparison of state owned and private TV channels since 1947
These channels entered a race for broadcasting pirated versions and camera prints of basically
new Indian releases in addition to American software. Software misuse was no more just an
individual’s affair; rather, it was taken over by the channels on a larger scale. Both aspects of this
scale promote private viewership of films at convenience. The history of this convenience and
software piracy escalation can be tracked back in the 80s as is reflected in the print media articles
of the period. Presumably, the decade had surfaced VCR that gave a blow to film viewership at
cinemas; however, the spread of cable TV put a last nail into the cinema’s coffin during the 90s.
These two factors: the overwhelming interest of the Pakistani public in the Indian software
followed by software piracy by cable operators sourced the decline of Pakistani cinema that
encouraged cinema owners to import Indian films.
This importing is heavily contested by the film producers and directors as well as the members of
film association who believe these imports will permanently damage the cinema industry. Here,
we see a direct clash between the interest of the cinemas and the cinema industry. Pakistan
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