PESHAWAR: All Pakistan Badar Munir Federation (APBMF) commemorated the 7th death anniversary of the superstar of Pashto cinema, Badar Munir, here on Sunday.

A large number of local artists and fans of Badar Munir attended the event conducted at the hujra of local film director Malang Peshawari on Dalazak road.

However no big Pashto film star or official of the KP culture directo-rate attended the function.

Sherinzada Badar, chief organiser of the event, told Dawn that he had sent invitations to all big stars of Pashto film industry, but regretted that they did not show up.

Film star Ajab Gul in his telephonic speech praised Badar Munir as a great hero and uncrowned king of Pashto cinema. `Badar Munir will continue to live in the hearts of millions of his fans for a long time to come,` he said.

The participants passed three resolutions on the occasion: the first was regarding early naming of the Kabuli Road after Badar Munir as already approved by the previous KP government; the second one demanded that names /titles of old films of the actor should not be used for new Pashto flicks; and the thirdone urged the KP culture directorate to run old Pashto films of Badar Munir at the local cinemas offering tickets on discount rates.

The speakers paid tribute to the legendary actor and said that late Badar Munir was not only an actor, but also a great human being. They demanded of the KP government to set up an art academy in his name in Peshawar. They said that services of the great actor for Pashto cinema should be duly recognised.

Gul Taj Khan, central chief of APBMF, pointed out that it was unfortunate that the big stars of Pashto film did not attend the event and regretted that even the KP culture minister did not bother to conduct an event in the memory of the star actor who had contributed immensely to the Pashto film indus-try. He said that Badar Munir`s contributions were spread over five decades and he would always be remembered as an iconic hero. He said that the legendary actor had performed in around 750 films of Pashto, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Bengali.

Aqal Munir, elder son of Badar Munir, said that his father had collected a big amount of money for Shaul