The Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (PILAC) has upgraded its Punjab Rung FM Radio, making it the country’s first Punjabi FM radio, while the audience can also watch the programmes via online streaming.

The Punjab Rung have been upgraded by equipping it with the latest broadcast equipment and professional human resource under a development scheme making it an effective tool to materialise overall objectives of the institute.

Backup broadcasting and studio equipment has been added to avoid stoppage of transmission in case of any fault.

The radio now offers round-the-clock nonstop transmission like its competitors in the market instead of the previous 16-hour programmes a day because of skilled staff hired for the purpose and upgrade of UPS, batteries, generator.

New radio jockeys (RJs) have been engaged to present quality programmes, besides upgrade of its music library.

Pilac Director General Dr Sughra Sadaf told Dawn that Punjab Rung FM Radio upgrade by the Punjab government through Pilac was directly related to the achievement of objectives set forth for the information and culture sector.

She said Punjab had multi-dimensional cultural norms in its different parts having unique cultural identities that needed promotion and projection through community development by presenting meaningful radio broadcast carrying the message of love, peace and tolerance as preached by its great sufi saints.

The radio has been upgraded to promote culture of moderate enlightenment and tolerance through production of programmes in local dialects and languages and facilitate the government departments in reaching out to the people, particularly in the rural areas for creating awareness about their departmental activities and service delivery.

It will help gear up the socio-cultural uplift of people of the province through targeted broadcast comprising programmes on language, literature, arts and culture, and be a source of encouragement for artists, writers, intellectuals through recognition of their services.

Visual art is a powerful medium, it was there even in the ancient times when human beings used to carve images in stones. In recent times, this art form has witnessed astounding development. Camera imagery or photography is also an old component of visual art. To acknowledge and highlight the medium’s significance, a group exhibition entitled, Surkh, featuring works of six artists was held at Alhamra Art Gallery, The Mall, from Jan 15 to 19.

The show highlighted the group’s ideological stance that power of photography is a catalyst for creating awareness on commonly ignored socio-political issues and addressing inter-cultural conflicts.

Surkh vision spotlights marginalised victims of collective indifference which not only include people but also stray animals, heritage and nature. Since the exhibition had an interesting theme, it was visited by a number of art fanciers.

The participating photographers were Abdul Waris Hameed, Amna Yaseen, Ghazanfar Bhinder, Muhammad Saeed Rao, Umair Ghanii and Zaheer Chaudhry.

The Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) will hold two-day Eleventh PFDC fashion week in Lahore from March 9 to 11.

The PFDC will announce participating fashion designers, textile and high-street brands in February 2018.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2018