Islamabad: Parliament's approval is necessary for the release of Indian films in Pakistan, Culture Minister Saad Rafique has said.

"Parliament's approval is a must for Indian movies to be released in the country's theatres and reservations about films from the neighbouring country will be removed soon," he said.

"Parliament, MPs and representatives of civil society will be consulted before the release of any Indian film, Rafique, a leader of former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party," told the Urdu newspaper Express.

A committee of Pakistan's Senate or upper house of parliament recently recommended that the government should allow the import of 12 Indian films a year on the condition that an equal number of Pakistani movies are released in India.

The committee had also pointed out that Indian films were also being shown on TV channels available on cable networks across the country.

Rafique also said a meeting will be held soon to solve the problems of Pakistan's film industry. The standard of Pakistani films is not as good as in the past and the government is aware of the problems faced by owners of theatres, he said.

He said the stories of Pakistani movies are not up to the mark and that is why they had flopped. "The movies makers should make movies keeping in view the national cultural heritage so as to attract the viewers attention," he said.

Rafique also said a policy will be devised to implement the Copyright Act to curb piracy.

Pakistan had banned the distribution and broadcast of Indian films after the 1965 war between the two countries. Since 2006, the Pakistan government has partially relaxed the ban to allow the screening of a handful of Indian films.

Last Friday, the critically acclaimed "Khuda Kay Liye" became the first Pakistani film to be released in India. While making its recommendations, the Senate committee had noted that despite the ban on Indian films, they were widely available in Pakistan in the form of pirated DVDs.