Official asks govt to rid PBC of financial crisis
HYDERABAD: Director-General of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) Murtaza Solangi has called upon the government, public representatives and political leadership of the country to evolve an effective strategy to rid PBC of financial constraints.
He said that Radio Pakistan has not decided anything on license fee yet and National Assembly’s standing committee has only given a proposal to this effect.
Addressing a press conference in Radio Pakistan’s Hyderabad station, Mr Solangi said Radio Pakistan played an important role in political, social and cultural cohesion. During natural disasters radio could provide useful information to people, he added.
There was no need of closing down Radio Pakistan because it was the only inexpensive source of information and entertainment that covered Pakistan, he said.
He said radio tax was tantamount to putting additional burden on people already hit by economic crisis and that’s why no decision had been taken yet. He, however, said that after considering different proposals any decision could be taken at higher level.
He said the PBC had been facing financial constraints because it had been receiving deficit budget since 2006. It spent Rs2.5 billion on salaries of employees and pension of retired employees. For the last several years, the PBC had not received funds for operational maintenance, he said.
He said that due to financial problems no appointments were made in the PBC. He said that a list of 661 temporary employees had been sent to the government for regularisation of their jobs and expressed the hope that they would be regularised soon.
Although the number of radio stations had been increased, they were facing shortage of employees, he said, adding that once the ban was lifted by the government, appointments would be made in the PBC.
He said that despite increasing popularity of FM radio, the importance of shortwave and medium wave transmissions could not be underestimated. He said that around 109 FM radio channels existed in the country but they were mainly restricted to urban centres and only Radio Pakistan covered whole Pakistan.
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