By Minahil Makhdoom
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting Senator Faisal Javed Khan has appreciated the role of Radio Pakistan in disseminating authentic news and effective programs. He maded the appreciation while chairing the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Information at Pakistan Broadcasting House Islamabad on Monday.
Senator Faisal Javed said Radio Pakistan is an asset of the country and it community based programme like “Rabita” has been playing a pivotal role in resolving different issues regarding Ehsas programme. He directed that special public awareness campaign should be run on child abuse, youth empowerment and women harassment in regional languages while a complaint cell should be functional for hearing grievances of the employees.
Lauding News and Current Affairs Programs of Radio Pakistan, he said quality of these programmes should be further improved for listeners’ attraction. He said Radio Pakistan should initiate talent hunt and invite talented youth to highlight their aptitude.
The Chairman Senate Body said Radio Pakistan needs effective marketing to raise its own income and work with other private channels on barter system to meet its expenditures. He said an aggressive sales team should be given tasks in this regard.
Addressing the meeting, Senator Pir Sabir Shah urged the need to use the effective medium of Radio Pakistan for countering Indian propaganda and highlight Kashmir issue. Senator Rukhsana Zubairi called for highlighting issued faced by the youth particularly those relating to jobs.
Senator Rubina Khalid urged the need of coordination between Radio Pakistan and NDMA and Met Office to prevent losses to public life and property. Senator Sajid Turi called for using religious teaching to check child abuse and other crimes in the society.
Director General Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation Ambreen Jan gave detailed briefing about functions of different wings of Radio Pakistan. She said Radio Pakistan is disseminating authentic news and airing programs from its 32 broadcasting houses across the country. She said digitization of two million minutes recordings is also underway out of which 0.78 million minutes have already been digitized. She said there are 19 news bulletins being aired on national hookup. In addition to this, local and regional bulletins are also aired in different languages.
Ms. Ambreen Jann informed the meeting that Radio Pakistan have 2.6 million followers on face book, 6 hundred thousand on twitter, 19 thousands on Instagram and 8,000 followers on U-tube. The meeting was also attended by Federal Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Akbar Durrani and officials of Radio Pakistan.
