Rashid for making Radio Pakistan more informative
ISLAMABAD- Minister for Information and Media Development Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on January 21, 2003 stressed the need for making Radio Pakistan a more friendly and effective mode of information.
Addressing the officers and staff of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), Rashid said young blood, with fresh ideas and the capabilities to meet new challenges, should be inducted into different production sections of Radio Pakistan.
Secretary Information and Media Development Syed Anwar Mahmood, who is also chairman of the PBC, and Director-General PBC Tarique Imam were also present on the occasion.
Rashid said Radio Pakistan should be made more people-friendly as far as information and entertainment was concerned. “Make efforts to help Radio Pakistan attain the status of an all-time companion equally among the rural and urban folks,” he said.
He urged the PBC staff to make concerted efforts for facing the upcoming boom of radio channels in the private sector. He announced that Radio Pakistan would upgrade its Islamabad station for round-the-clock broadcast. He also announced to double the existing budget allocations for the programmes and news sectors of Radio Pakistan.
Meanwhile, speaking live on FM 101, Sheikh Rashid said his ministry was making dedicated efforts to make the channel more effective. Earlier, the minister was given a detailed briefing on the PBC’s projects and future plans. He was apprised that the PBC had a chain of 25 radio stations in almost all parts of the country to cater to the needs of around 96.5 per cent of the total population.
Rashid called for re-prioritising the list of the foreign language programmes. “The national interest should be the hallmark of all our national and international programmes,” he observed.
He asked the PBC management to explore new vistas of the private sponsorship for different programmes. For that purpose, he said, an independent marketing section should be established.
Tarique Imam, giving break-up of programmes aired by PBC, said 48 per cent of the total airtime was specified for entertainment, 32 per cent for education and rest 20 per cent for information. In addition to that, he said, the Home Service aired programmes in 21 regional languages. On the World Service, nine hours had been dedicated daily to air programmes for the Middle Eastern and European countries, he said.
The External Service has a 10-hour daily transmission in 15 languages for the Asian, African and European countries. The ‘Sautul Qur’aan’ Channel is aired for five hours starting at 7 am.
He said the chain of FM-101 introduced initially in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore has been extended to eight cities including Quetta, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Sialkot and Peshawar. By 2010, he said, 22 more cities would have the FM-101 network.
Source: The News
Date:1/22/2003
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