Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Owing to the substandard quality of feature films and negligence on part of the concerned departments, dwellers of Islamabad are deprived of entertainment through movie cinemas. The federal capital, home to millions, had three cinema houses, two of which, Melody and Kohsar, were demolished to make room for shopping plazas or marriage halls. The remaining cinema, NAFDEC, which was working under government’s entity, the defunct National Film Development Corporation, was closed for a long time and the building that cost million of rupees to the national kitty, was giving the look of ruins. Recently, two private companies had set up two cinemas in the city, one at a public park and the other at a shopping mall. However, tickets for these cinema houses were costly and way out of reach for the common man. The masses of Islamabad have shown disappointment over the non-availability of cheap entertainment of cinema houses while several citizens have to go to Rawalpindi to watch movies. The young generation prefers to watch the movies on the mobile phone applications through Internet. Dearth of quality and meaningful movies was pushing the owners of cinema houses towards transforming their business into commercial plazas. On the other hand, with the arrival of cable TV in Pakistan and excessive use of Internet, culture of cinema houses was fast depleting.