Conspiracy to shut down Chitral Radio

Report Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: The transmissions of local station of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation have been suspended for the last four days owing to loadshedding and residents of the district have termed it a conspiracy to close down Chitral radio station permanently.
An official of the radio station told this correspondent on Tuesday that they had received instructions from the headquarters of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation not to use the diesel generators during loadshedding hours. He said that the station broadcast programmes of six hours duration daily in the evening and it coincided with the power loadshedding.
He said that the radio station was electrified by two generators which were run simultaneously. He denied the speculations of the public that the station was being closed down saying that it was being done to save the high costs of diesel. He said that transmissions would be started when electricity was supplied by Pesco.
He said that the station had recently been upgraded by the installation of FM transmitters and now its transmissions were received in a radius of more than 50 kilometres while previously it were confined to only 10 kilometres.
Another official of the radio station said that the problem of power loadshedding and instructions about not using generators had left more than 40,000 listeners in Chitral with no other option but to hear the transmissions of Radio Kabul, All India Radio and Voice of America.
“The Chitral station of Radio Pakistan has more than 40,000 listeners as we receive more than 1000 letters per month besides telephone calls and emails,” he added. He said that residents of Chitral could not hear the transmissions of Peshawar and Islamabad stations, so they were totally depended on local radio station.
He regretted that contrary to Islamabad and Peshawar stations of Radio Pakistan, the transmissions of All India Radio, Voice of America and Radio Kabul could be easily heard in the area.
“If we stop airing our programmes, people will have no other choice but to opt for these radios,” he said. He added that they aired programmes in local Khowar language which were very popular among the locals. “Listeners are upset as they cannot hear the Khowar programmes. They call us and show concerns over the suspension of Khowar programmes,” he added.
He was of the view that people would listen to foreign radio or a local FM radio, which broadcast only Indian songs, if they stopped transmissions. “A newly established FM radio broadcasts nothing except Indian songs. If we stop transmissions people will listen Indian songs and foreign radios, which is dangerous for the sense of patriotism,” he added.
The president of Comperes Association of the station, Khurshid Ahmed, alleged that the transmissions were being closed permanently on the pretext of loadshedding.
In a press statement issued here on Tuesday, he said that local radio was not only a source of entertainment and current affairs but it also preserved the local culture, language and literature. The closing down of Chitral radio station would inflict a great harm on the residents of the district. He said that the people of Chitral very fondly tuned their radio sets to the local station as there was no other source of entertainment in the area. He demanded of prime minister and information minister to order the authorities concerned to resume the transmissions of Chitral radio station.--Dawn