MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 3: Quake survivors in the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will shortly receive around 5,000 transistors from the organizers of a radio channel to keep themselves aware of relief and reconstruction-related activities as well as other precautionary measures, an AJK government official told Dawn.

Dr Syed Asif Hussain, secretary information, tourism and information technology, said the radio sets were being provided mainly because most of the quake survivors had no access to any means of information.

“The majority has lost its belongings and they do not have any idea what is going around. The radio sets will help them learn different things relevant to the present situation,” he said.

The new radio channel was being launched by the Punjab University’s department of mass communications and the United Nations Fund for Children (Unicef) in partnership with each other, with an objective to assist and strengthen relief and rehabilitation-related activities, he said.

Apart from the transistors, the organizers of FM radio will also provide hygiene kits to quake survivors, he added.

Dr Hussain said the organizers, granted a three-month license by the Pemra, were awaiting allocation of frequency by the relevant authorities to start their transmissions.

However, he said that another private sector party had launched an FM radio channel called FM 87 Ravi from Tuesday.

“God willing we will provide both information and entertainment to our listeners,” Ashiq Hussain Hamdani, a producer of FM 87 Ravi, told Dawn.

AJK’s official radio station, known as Azad Kashmir Radio Muzaffarabad, had also resumed its transmissions recently through a one-kilowatt transmitter after remaining off the air for 15 days after the quake.

Radio Muzaffarabad was being heard as FM 101 from 8am to 11pm — with a two-hour break in the middle of the day.

Dr Hussain said he had also requested Unicef and PU mass communications department officials to launch similar radio channels in the southern AJK towns of Bagh and Rawalakot which had also been ravaged by the quake, and added that they had promised to look into its possibility.

The secretary further said that the AJK Television would also be resuming its transmissions, which had been suspended after the quake, on Eidul Fitr.

The AJKTV was functioning in the building of Radio Muzaffarabad which collapsed in the quake.

The secretary said that the PTV had provided an omnibus to the AJKTV besides reinforcing their technical staff to resume their transmission.

“The AJKTV will go live from the omnibus on the day of Eid with the broadcast of various programmes,” he said.

He said the AJK information department had provided full cooperation and assistance to the AJKTV people to help them launch their programmes.

He said he believed that the revival of local electronic media would help the public in leading normal life once again.