KARACHI, Nov 27: A local FM radio station is on the verge of a permanent closure as the authorities have not yet returned its broadcast equipment, which were seized hours after the imposition of emergency rule on Nov 3 by President General Pervez Musharraf.

According to an FM-103 official, due to the seizure of the channel’s transmitter by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the operations of its Karachi station had been suspended since Nov 3.

“Our broadcasts from three other stations (Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan) are on air as usual,” said Imran Bajwa, a top-ranking official of FM-103.

“We have been denied meeting by the Pemra’s regional officials, who are not eager to engage in any dialogue with us on the issue. So we are uncertain about the future of our station.”

Mr Bajwa said that despite more than three-week’s closure of the Karachi station, none of the workers had been laid off, however, the organisation was facing a severe financial crisis.

Senior Pemra officials, assisted by the area police raided the FM-103 offices hours after President Musharraf announced emergency rule in country under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) as the chief of the army staff.

The radio station, which broadcast hourly Urdu news bulletins, also came under fire a few months ago but the international news network, which originally produced the bulletins and put it on air through FM-103, had approached the court to win a stay order, which allowed broadcast of such programmes till a final decision.

Mr Bajwa said that after a week, the future line of action would be chalked out. He said that the organisation was also considering approaching the judiciary against the Pemra’s action.