Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif calls for utilizing digital media as tool to portray Pakistan’s positive image

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26 (SABAH): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has emphasized the need to utilize digital media as a tool to portray the positive image of Pakistan.

Addressing the National Amateur Short Film Festival 2022 in Islamabad on Monday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said our youth should take a leading role for this purpose.

Congratulating the winners of the festival, the Prime Minister said Pakistan has a wonderful soft, tolerant image which needs to be reflected all over the world through modern tools and technology.

He said the coalition government will take every possible measure to facilitate our youth for its endeavour to showcase Pakistan’s diverse and beautiful image to the world.

The Prime Minister said merit based talent should be encouraged to promote Pakistan’s culture and its industry.

The Prime directed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to increase the number of scholarships from fifteen to fifty under National Amateur Short Film Festival so more students can get opportunity of the foreign trainings. He said these scholarships should be equally divided among male and females.

The Prime Minister also distributed awards among the winners of National Amateur Short Film Festival 2022.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb said this festival is part of our National Film Policy that was launched in 2017. She said under this country’s first ever film policy, we aim to revive the real glory of Pakistan’s Film Industry.

Marriyum Aurangzeb stressed that Film making should be given a holistic view for the promotion of education, tourism and image building. She said the industry has a great potential in promoting screen tourism and reviving vibrant and colourful culture of Pakistan.

The Minister said keeping in view the importance of short films for the perception building in this digital age, Pakistani students who have great potential in this field will be sent to New York Film Academy for learning film production skills.

Marriyum Aurangzeb said we are also planning to launch film making curriculum across the Pakistan. She said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is launching the Artist Finance Fund to support country’s artist. The fund will provide medical coverage to the artists.

Earlier, Secretary Information and Broadcasting Shaheera Shahid stressed the need to promote film making to cope with the prevailing challenge of perception building. She urged the people associated with film industry to showcase Pakistan’s real, peaceful and colorful image to the world through short film making.

The Secretary said the theme of this year’s National Amateur Short Film Festival is Oceans and Mountains. She said the 15 winners of this festival will get the opportunity to go Australia for training at New York Film Academy.