SKARDU, Feb 3: People on Saturday urged the government to boost the power of radio broadcasts in the Skardu area so that the Radio Pakistan could compete with programmes broadcasted by Indian radio stations in Ladakh, Kargil and Srinager.

Stressing the need to install a high-powered short-wave transmitter, people said it was vital to defend the country’s electronic frontiers. They said that foreign cultural, political and music-oriented programmes were overwhelming transmissions being broadcast from Radio Skardu.

Electronic media, they said, was the best tool to propagate national cultural, literary and political activities besides publicising government policies.

Pakistan government had set up a radio station in Skardu in 1979. Its capacity was later enhanced but the 10-kilowatt medium wave transmitter was now failing to compete with powerful foreign electronic invasion, reducing it effective within the suburbs of Skardu.

Complaints of frequent and abrupt transmission disruptions, high background noise and low sound quality are common. Local audience even complained that some times the radio transmissions are not heard in the city.

Recently, Radio Skardu had started broadcasting three-hour programmes for Baltistan because of huge public demand. The programmes were initially aired between 8am and 11am but the change in timings (9:30am to 11:30am) had deprived people here from listening to national news and other important programmes. The people urged the authorities to start radio transmissions from 7am, enabling people from all walks of life to listen to news and other programmes of local interest.