Bollywood films screened in Pakistan did not depict Indian culture: Jamal
By Asim Hussain

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Culture Ghazi Gulab Jamal Wednesday said the two Indian movies allowed screening in Pakistan did not depict the culture of India.
Speaking in the National Assembly during Question Hour, he said Mughal-e-Azam and Taj Mahal in fact represented the Muslim culture and were allowed screening in Pakistani cinemas as part of confidence building measures between the two countries.
Otherwise, he added, the showing of Indian movies was banned under the law. He said Pakistani films were not shown in India probably because of the fact that they were not of good standard. Ghazi Gulab, however, said six Pakistani films will be shown in India during a film festival there.
He said exhibition of 38 English films was allowed from January 2005 till date which were examined and certified by the Central Board of Film Censors. Minister for Religious Affairs Ejaz ul Haq in reply to a question informed the house that the Saudi laws did not permit the purchase of buildings in Makkah for accommodation of pilgrims.
He said this year they have got lease of buildings which are not very close to Haram as the Saudi authorities have either demolished or declared dangerous a number of them to start new construction. Ejaz said Pakistan charges very low rates of accommodation from the pilgrims as compared with the rest of the countries.
Elaborating about the method of acquisition of buildings on lease, he said a committee, comprising representative of Pakistan's consul general in Saudi Arabia, Director General Hajj and a technical person decides which ones to hire. He said great care is taken while hiring buildings to ensure that every pilgrim gets 3.5 square meters of space which is provided under the Saudi laws.
The minister said the data of all the buildings hired during the last four years is saved with the ministry and if there are no complaints by the pilgrims about the accommodation then these are re-hired next year. He said 515 hajj group organizers have been registered for this year's pilgrimage.
Minister of State for Education Aneesa Zeb Tahirkheli informed the house that the total number of engineers registered with Pakistan Engineering Council by October, 2006 was 91,853. She said Higher Education Commission (HEC) has approved projects worth Rs 14 billion to strengthen the engineering universities in the country.
She said HEC is giving 5,000 scholarships to those who want to study engineering and the students also include those residing in backward and far off areas of Pakistan.
She informed the house that so far 713 scholarships have been availed by the students.