MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Kashmir Radio Muzaffarabad (AKRM) has finally got a renovated technical block with four studios, a master control room and some other facilities.

Before shifting to new block, it ran its transmission and administrative affairs from flimsy tents and shelters in the most abject conditions for nine years.

The block, raised on its previous site from as low as Rs3 million by the engineering department of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), was formally inaugurated by PBC director general Ms Samina Parvez, here the other day.

The AKRM, it may be recalled, was opened in the ‘base camp’ (launch pad) of Kashmir freedom movement on October 15, 1960 to stimulate the Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) and ward off Indian propaganda against their just cause.

However, the October 2005 earthquake played havoc with the buildings and equipment of AKRM in its broadcasting house in the main old city, brining its transmissions to a halt.

The transmissions were provisionally resumed after the installation of an FM transmitter in the last week of October 2005, from 6am to 11pm with a 2-hour midday break, by a skeleton staff of 35 against the sanctioned strength of 125. However, despite repeated demands from civil society, neither the building could be rebuilt nor equipment could be upgraded, allegedly due to the indifference of PBC bosses, subsequently leaving no option for the fervent staffers and artists to carry out their jobs in the most pitiful conditions, braving scorching summer heat and biting winter cold in shoddy shelters and tents.

However, the situation took a turn for the better, when the incumbent DG visited the forlorn station in September last year and asked her team to renovate the block in as early as possible time. The work started some four months ago.

Talking to journalists she admitted that a considerable time had been wasted in rehabilitation of the AKRM, but stopped short of laying blame on anyone for the said lapses. The DG asserted that the PBC had always given importance to Muzaffarabad and the listeners of AKRM were as much valued for it as were those of other stations across the country.

She told that the federal finance division had approved purchase of 100 KW medium wave digital transmitter for AKRM, which would be installed by June next year. Apart from that, Rs 9 million had been approved for the rehabilitation of High Power Transmitter (HPT) Centre on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, she added.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2014