KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) held its second day for FocusPK – Pakistan’s first production and entertainment conference on Sunday. The first three sessions were Channels vs Private Productions, Animation & Investments and Discriminations. Channels vs Private Productions featured a panel of speakers including Hina Bayat, Misbah Khalid, Seema Taher, Sultana Siddiqui, Nina Kashif and Farhan Qaiser, who spoke about whether channel productions are better than private productions, while Sultana Siddiqui and Misbah Khalid argued that the channel take the risks and picks up sensitive issues in society. The producer will just produce it, but the channel takes the threats and faces the criticism. In relation, they mentioned ‘Udaari’. They also argued that actors’ costs and taxes are high and independent producers often could not afford the cost. The other session for Animation purely revolved around the first hand drawn animation film of Pakistan by Usman Riaz by Mano Animation Studios titled ‘Sheesha Ghar’ or ‘The Glassworker’. Usman Riaz spoke to the audience virtually from the US, while two core team members from his team, producer Khizer Riaz and animation director Aamir Riffat, sat in the panel and answered the audience’s queries. This project laid a foundation for Pakistani artists who love to draw and introduce animation to a country that is unfamiliar with this art. The prologue will be released in summer 2017 which is 15 minutes long. The team aims to create a 90-minute film by the end of it. The third session was called Investment & Discrimination/News & Views. The panel of speakers included Arif Baig Muhammad, Iktiar Baig, Hashim Raza, Khawar Azhar, Satish Anand, Nadeem Mandviwalla and moderator Amir Zia. The conversation focused on risky investments and the predicted benefits of banks financing the entertainment industry. Satish Anand was heard saying, “People with money don’t always have intelligence, people who do, don’t have the money.” Khawar Azhar added that if you corporatise news channels, they will become transparent, add objectivity and help greatly. The second three sessions were Foreign Content & Syndication, Regional Language & Radio and FM Stations. For session Foreign Content & Syndication, the speakers were Omair Rana, Samina Ahmed, Zeeshan Chaudhry, Misbah Khalid and Atiqa Odho. The conversation revolved around whether there should be any foreign content allowed at all. Most of the speakers argued that foreign content should not be promoted and local content needs to be pushed forward as foreign content plays during prime time and steals away the audience from our regional content. “If you really need to put on foreign content then use it for educational purpose such as documentaries,” said Samina Ahmed. Talking about copyright, speakers discussed how foreign countries over the years have stolen Pakistani music. They claimed that nothing needs to be reinvented since the laws are there but they need to be implemented. The session on Regional Language centred on the future of regional language content. The panel included Hameed Sheikh, Ajab Gul, Syed Noor and Seemi Raheel as moderator. Hameed Sheikh emphasised that PTV needs to be revived if the government wishes to restore regional languages. Seemi Raheel added, “We aren’t giving our culture the importance it needs. Competing with the west on their culture isn’t the right way to go.” Ajab Gul, speaking about Pushto films added that small budget films aren’t threatened by Indian films. Despite threats from terrorism, Pushto cinema still survives and thus, needs to be given a chance. Session Radio & FM stations, third in this time, had speakers; Adeel Azhar, Mehdi Raza, Sohail Hashmi, Zoe Viccaji, Khurshid Ahmed, Faisal Javed, Fifi Haroon and Ali Safina discussed the importance of radio in Pakistan as a dying medium. Zoe Viccaji said radio is essential for her. “The first thing that I think about when I’m releasing a new album, is which radio I’m going to be placed on. Radio is key for my music to be heard.” Radio needs to be the common man’s forum providing constant updates about the country and just like TV, radio needs to be segmented according to the audiences listening throughout the day, for eg positive and upbeat news in the morning. The last three sessions of the day were; Actors vs Producers, Children Programming & Digital Activation & Marketing. Actors vs Producers talked about the issues that actors and producers face with each other, a lot concerning standard ethics. The speakers were Omair Rana, Angeline Malik, Erum Binte Shahid, Naeem Tariq, Jamal Shah, Hameed Sheikh, Hina Bayat and Sarmad Khoosat as moderator. Prominent actors of Pakistan complained that their biggest issue is with the contracts that producers create regarding actors.