August 25, 2006	Friday	Rajab 29, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, Aug 24: FM radio channels operating in the federally and provincially administered tribal areas Fata and Pata do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) as the ordinance under which the authority was formed in 2002 has not been extended to the regions.

This has left a the field clear for clerics and religious and political parties to set up their own FM channels, which are operated from mosques and party offices to propagate their religious and political ideas and beliefs.

Though the NWFP police have closed down 87 such channels since March after getting a list from Pemra functionaries here, officials admit that the authority is not legally empowered to act against FM channels run in Malakand region and Fata.

At least 18 FM channels are operating in Fata — eight in Bajaur, seven in Khyber, two in Mohmand and one in Orakzai agency. More than 10 are operating in Malakand and are in the knowledge of Pemra functionaries.

“Of the 87 channels closed down, 55 were identified by us,” said a Pemra official.

The authority had identified 88 channels in a list provided to the police.

Some of them are still operating because of legal complications, according to official sources.

The sources said the Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and other agencies were also involved in efforts to close down FM channels in Fata and Malakand.

“The government is moving slowly as use of force might ignite the situation endangering law and order. Intelligence agencies have been asked by the President’s House to persuade men behind these channels to stop disseminating hate messages,” said a federal government official.

Legal lacuna has served as a justification for political activists and clerics to set up such channels with a majority of them belonging to men linked with component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

At least two channels area being run by people linked with the proscribed Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammedi (TNSM) in Mingora.

People running such channels in Mingora and Lower and Upper Dir districts say that they are ready to get registered.

“We will get our radio channel registered if asked by the government,” said owner of a chemist shop in Maidan, Dir Lower, while referring to the FM channel operated from the mosque of his village.

Housed in a room of the mosque, the channel consists of a transmitter placed in a wooden rack with two large batteries.

Close to the rack lie a microphone, a cassette player and dozens of cassettes containing speeches on religious matters by leaders representing a specific school of thought.

“Apart from imam sahib’s speech twice a day seven days a week, recorded speeches of religious scholars, naat and hamd are broadcast every morning,” said a caretaker of the channel.

He said the government should encourage such low-cost radio channels as they could be used as an important mean to educate people, particularly women unable to attend schools because of social taboos and conservative values.

However, Pemra officials said the channels operating in Fata and Pata could not be issued licences or registered as there was no provision in the Pemra Ordinance for it.

Officials said NWFP Senior Minister Sirajul Haq had recently contacted Pemra’s Peshawar office to get information vis-a-vis registering FM channels being run by Jamaat-i-Islami men in Malakand, including one housed in Al Markaz—Islami, the party’s district office at Timmergara.

In a recent interview, Mr Haq had said that JI men operating FM channels in Dir had been asked to get their facilities registered with the relevant authorities. Experts say such channels pose threat to the communication network of mobile phones and the armed forces.