LAHORE PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL SUSPENDED DUE TO FINANCIAL,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 LAHORE 000223 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINS SCUL PK SUBJECT: LAHORE PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL SUSPENDED DUE TO FINANCIAL, SECURITY CONCERNS ¶1. (U) Summary: Organizers of the Lahore International Performing Arts Festival recently announced they were cancelling the festival for 2009, citing security concerns and financial constraints. The 2008 Festival, the 25th anniversary event, drew performers from 23 countries, thousands of festival-goers and three IED explosions, presumably by violent Islamist extremists. The organizers, members of the Pirzada family, privately blamed corporate fickleness, political partisanship and bureaucratic shortsightedness for this year's cancellation, and said that tribal artists from across Pakistan had flooded them with messages expressing their sorrow at the loss of the event. The Pirzadas have already begun lining up funding to try again in 2010. -------------- -------------- Background: Multi-National Celebration of Culture -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) The annual Lahore International Performing Arts Festival is organized by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop (RPTW),a not-for-profit organization based outside of Lahore. It was founded by a family of artists and named for its late patriarch, Rafi Pirzada. Creative Director and third-generation puppeteer Faizan Pirzada told CG Lahore that the Festival was a multi-national, multi-faith, multi-lingual celebration of creativity and diversity. Note: In addition to the Performing Arts Festival, RPTW organizes international puppet, Sufi, and youth festivals each year. The Pirzadas also operate a puppet museum, a traditional crafts village, and a healthful cafe on the outskirts of Lahore. Their facilities are available at low cost to (expensive) private schools, and at no cost to schools serving low-income families. ¶3. (U) The Silver Jubilee Performing Arts Festival was held November 13-23, 2008, and attracted 351 artists from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Oceania, including 151 performers from India. 11,000 Pakistani artists also participated. Due to political uncertainty at the time, the numbers were down from previous years. The 2008 Festival was held at Gaddafi Stadium, attracting a live audience of thousands of people, and was broadcast by local radio and television stations. Three improvised explosive devices were detonated near the stadium the evening of November 21, 2008, injuring three and damaging buildings. RPTW suspected the explosions were linked to earlier telephonic threats. RPTW and the participating artists decided to continue the Festival for the remaining two nights, receiving plaudits from local media for their bravery. Usman Pirzada, an actor and television director, said the family considered the Festival an important contribution to countering extremism in Pakistan and India. The Pirzadas were proud of the festival, and during a September iftari at the CGR, invited all ConGen Lahore staff for the planned November 2009 26th Annual Festival. -------------- - Celebration Cancelled Due to Security Concerns -------------- - ¶4. (U) On November 12, RPTW announced at a press conference in Lahore that the 26th Annual International World Performing Arts Festival would not be held in 2009. The Pirzadas appeared as a group, saying the security situation and financial constraints resulted in their decision to cancel the festival. Faizan Pirzada said he did not want to blame anyone for the cancellation, but admitted that he had hoped for government support, but it did not come through. LAHORE 00000223 002 OF 003 -------------- -------------- Political Run-Around, Bureaucratic Ridicule -------------- -------------- ¶5. (SBU) On November 17, Pirzada was far more forthcoming, telling CG Lahore that he blamed Provincial leadership for the cancellation. He had approached Governor Salman Taseer (Pakistan Peoples' Party) for assistance first. Taseer said he had no money, but would write a letter recommending the Chief Minister support the event. Pirzada took the letter to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif (Pakistan Muslim League-N) and repeated his pitch. Sharif refused the request, asking rhetorically how he could fund a cultural festival when people were dying in the province for lack of medical care. ¶6. (SBU) Pirzada was angriest over the reaction of Punjab Financial Secretary, whose reaction, upon hearing Pirzada's pitch and the steps he had taken so far to seek financial support from the provincial government, was laughter. "Those two (the governor and the chief minister) won't even shake hands!" He ridiculed them for thinking that Sharif would look favorably upon their request because they brought a letter from the governor, instead of realizing that it would turn him against the project. ¶7. (SBU) The Pirzadas had turned to the government when their main corporate sponsor for 2008, Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor, informed them that it would not fund the festival this year because of liability concerns. The Pirzadas added that they could not afford to finance the festival themselves, as they had carried many costs associated with the 2008 Festival. Nor could they take the responsibility of hosting the Festival without government assurances regarding security. The previous year's attack, combined with the series of attacks Lahore had suffered through 2009, made it too risky. -------------- Artists Down but not Out -------------- ¶8. (U) Five days after announcing their decision to cancel the festival, two generations of Pirzadas were in mourning, in different stages of anger, sadness and resignation. They felt betrayed by the government (political appointees and bureaucrats alike) for refusing to support a successful celebration of creativity and tolerance when Pakistan could use plenty of both. ¶9. (U) They also felt guilty, in turn, of betraying fellow artists in Balochistan, Federally-Administered Tribal Areas, and Northwest Frontier Province who had been risking their lives for decades by performing in areas where Islamists have held sway. Since the November 12 announcement, text messages and emails had been streaming in from disappointed artists. These Pakistani performers told the Pirzadas that the festival had been an annual joy, their only opportunity to for international and domestic cultural exchanges, and a reminder that there was still a cultural world beyond their own troubled areas. International artists had written to express support and their hopes that the 26th annual event would be rescheduled for 2010. LAHORE 00000223 003 OF 003 ¶10. (SBU) That hope may not be in vain. During 2009 RPTW has put on its International Puppet Festival (March),International Sufi Festival (April); it intends to hold an International Youth Festival in December, all in Lahore. On November 20 RPTW leaders met with with Pakistan communications company Mobilink to discuss Mobilink's possible sponsorship of the 26th Performing Arts Festival in November 2010, according to Faizan Pirzada. The family's financial investment (embodied in 25 tons of audio-visual equipment) and emotional commitment were too great to give up. CONROY