TOBA TEK SINGH, Nov 5: The closure of private TV news channels after the imposition of emergency in the country, viewers have turned towards foreign radio stations which broadcast Urdu news bulletins.

Various political leaders told Dawn they were forced to pick radio sets to hear news bulletins on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Voice of America and Voice of Germany.

Former PPP MPA Mian Muhammad Rafiq, National Workers’ Party’s Chaudhry

Fateh Muhammad, former

PPP leader Qazi Ghiasuddin Janbaz and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Chaudhry Amjad Ali stated that they looked for their old and abandoned radio sets for the latest updates.

Among the radio services, the BBC attracted a vast majority of listeners. The BBC has extended its Urdu broadcast duration.

With the government’s decision to off air all TV news channels, electronic shop owners sold a record number of transistor radio sets and cleared all old stocks.

Mubashir Hassan Shah, an electronic shop owner on Jhang Road, said that he sold two to radio sets every day but after state of emergency, the sale had arisen to 10 pieces a day.

Asif, owner of a departmental store on Shorkot Road, said the sale of battery cells for radio sets had also been increased and he daily sells about 100 cells instead of his previous sale of about 25 a day.