Pakistani Academy Selection Committee
The Pakistani Academy Selection Committee (PASC) is a non-governmental selection committee of Pakistani film director, producers, writers, actors, distributors and exhibitors, headquartered in Karachi and Lahore. The PASC selects the Pakistani Official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film each year. However, submission is not bound to Foreign Language category, if meets with the eligibility requirements of Academy's rules, it is permissible for every competitive award. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a chairman and head of committee who overseen the final selection for Oscars and is a lifetime member of PASC. In  2013, committee shortlisted the four films. Eligibility Criteria. The PASC choose one film as Pakistan’s official submission for the, "Foreign Language Film Award." A foreign language film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. The criteria for eligibility is as follows: Submissions. Pre-2013 submissions. Before 2013, as no committee was formed, films were sent by directors by themselves. The 1958 Urdu film "Jago Hua Savera" was Pakistan's first submission, but the film was not selected from the selection process to shortlist and to  final five nominations. In 1963 second film "Ghunghat" was also fail to compete in selection process. Submissions and committees by year. Following is the complete details of selection committee's submissions for Best Foreign Language Film category at Academy Awards. Nominations. The "Best Foreign Language Film" category was not created until 1956; however, between 1947 and 1955, the Academy presented a non-competitive Honorary Award for the best foreign language films released in the United States. Pakistan the submit its first ever film in 1959, three after the category introduced, however film fails to make it in final nomination. Second  submission was made in 1963 by Khawaja Khurshid Anwar, it also fails to reach in top five. After that, with the political and economical crises of country, Pakistani Cinema and theaters went into the doomed state, good productions and quality work were completely lost, acclaimed filmmakers also stopped production due to the lack of funds and proper attention of media, also major awarding ceremony "Nigar Awards" were also abolished as no quality work was available, deterioration state of cinema remains for fifty-years. Year 2013 brought the new wave in Pakistani cinema, when seven independent and local collaborated films, brought  the lost integrity of film industry, among them "Zinda Bhaag" was the first film which was sent by committee after fifty-years from four chosen films, however was not nominated like its predecessors. In 2014, committee selected "Dukhtar", for submission at 87th Academy Awards, which did not get nomination. In 2015 selection "Moor" was submitted on 10 September 2015 with the initial deadline of 25 August 2015 given by Academy, it failed to reach the December shortlist and did not get the nomination. On 22 September 2016 committee announced "Mah e Mir" as its official submission at 89th Academy Awards , which was previously scheduled to be announced on 16 September 2016.