Pak opens doors to artistes, to screen on case-to-case basis

Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s offer to grant visas to Indian artists on a case-to-case basis, Lata Mangeshkar first and others later, has only vetted the appetite of his Indian counterpart Ravi Shankar Prasad. ‘‘Why just Lata. Why not Jagjit Singh? I am sure he has a following in Pakistan just as Abida Parveen or Adnan Sami are feted here,’’ Prasad said today.

It doesn’t stop with singers where India and Pakistan disagree. On the issue of transnational broadcasting, which requires SAARC members to give permission to downlink programmes of national channels into their respective countries, members, noticeably Pakistan, have sought time. ‘‘They will respond to SAARC secretariat in 45 days,’’ Prasad said.

Ditto for the proposal on liberalising the visa regime in SAARC and setting up a media forum. ‘‘We resolved that media is substantially owned by the private sector and we have sought a structured response from the media managers which will be submitted within six months,’’ the I&B minister said. At the concluding session of the two-day SAARC Information Ministers Meet, Prasad said most of the decisions on holding a conference of editors and journalists from SAARC, which Delhi will host and the SAARC Information Centre in Nepal were cleared right away.

On Delhi’s proposal to hold SAARC Film Festival, Prasad said, it has been taken note of but will take a while.