Islamabad: (Parliament Times) The Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaurdhary Fawad Hussain has on Friday asked the Lok Virsa – the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, to submit report on its crafty affairs in three days.
Director Pakistan Mountain Festival and Devcom-Pakistan Munir Ahmed has filed a written complaint about the unprofessional and rude behavior of the ministry’s attached department in a meeting with the federal Minister.
The complaint states that the Lok Virsa is being run by a part-time Executive Director for the last about ten months. In the absence of fulltime chief executive the staff malpractice and treat the professionals like their slaves and servants. The executive decisions are changed in the last minute without informing and taking the second party into confidence. While the aggrieved parties raise voice on the changes in the decisions, the staff behaves quite rudely.
Ahmed mentioned in his complaint that “Lok Virsa has been turned to a commercial den even for the grassroots level organizations promoting the Pakistani cultures while the donor-funded projects are free to avail the Lok Virsa premises without any costs”.
The complaint mentions: Founded in 1974 with the scope and mandate of “preservation, documentation and promotion of folk and traditional heritage” of different parts of the country, the Lok Virsa blames the federal minister for culturally unfriendly practices.
The complaint pointed out that due to Lok Virsa mismanagement its staff wrongly communicated the artisans coming from different parts of the mountain regions that the inaugural ceremony of the ‘Mountain Cultural Showcase’ had been postponed. Due to which the event was disrupted and also caused the loss of repute, good-will and professional image to the organizers – Devcom-Pakistan and huge worst impact to the globally known Pakistan Mountain Festival.
The complainant has requested the federal minister to immediately remove the culturally insensitive and politically motivated staff especially the deputy director sales and others who were appointed on contract basis in the last regime. Instead, he suggested the minister to appointing culturally sensitive and dedicated cordial staff and fulltime executive director to run Lok Virsa, a public organization of national and international importance.
Mr Ahmed has requested the federal minister to ask Lok Virsa continue with the old policy to support and encourage the non-funded, non-profit and non-commercial cultural events in collaboration with the non-governmental and community based organizations. He said, the old policy is being practices but for the selected ones.
Charging high rent of every nook and corner of the Lok Virsa, the complaint says, is denotes to the federal minister which contrary to vision and approach of the Prime Minister Imran Khan that promises to engage youth and general public and cultural promotion. Even it is against the mandate and scope of the Lok Virsa, an organization built and operated with the financial support of the federal budget and tax-payers money.
