The Federal Government of Pakistan has made a deliberate decision to ban Bollywood movies from showcasing them in local cinemas this Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha.

On every festive occasion, many Pakistani filmmakers come up with local movies but some of them suffer greatly in terms of business as they have to compete with Indian movies. However, the Pakistan Film Exhibitor’s Association has made a decision to restrict the release of any Indian movie on Eid-ul-Fitr as well as Eid-ul-Azha to combat the issue.

“In order to revive and promote local film industry in Pakistan, the Federal Government has decided to put a limited restriction on exhibition/ screening of Indian films during the period around Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha,” the notification reads.

This means that the ban will also implicate on Salman Khan’s upcoming release ‘Race 3’ that also stars Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Saqib Saleem and Anil Kapoor.  The ban will come into effect two days before Eid, which is expected fall on June 14 and Salman’s movie is scheduled to release on June 15. The movie will hit Pakistani theaters two weeks after its initial release as per the noticed banned time.

Salman’s last release ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ alongside Katrina Kaif also faced ban in the country as the movie reportedly featured Pakistan’s Intelligence Agency inappropriately.

The ministry has asked the distributors and importers to refrain from screening of Indian films in cinema houses all over the country.