In a rare incident in the country’s history, Radio Pakistan went off the air as all the broadcast of Radio Pakistan and its affiliate FM channels remain suspended for many hours on Saturday evening.
According to official sources, a short circuiting developed at the PBC due to electricity fluctuation and the short circuiting gutted the entire machinery.
It is pertinent to mention here that no other complaint of power fluctuation or short circuiting had been registered yet in the entire vicinity.
Though independent sources claimed that the broadcast of Radio Pakistan remained suspended for many hours, the officials at the Pakistan Broadcast Company (PBC) claimed that the broadcast remained suspended for just over an hour.
PBC Director-General Sheraz Latif took immediate notice of the situation and got the broadcast restored under his supervision. Latif has also decided to probe the matter.
When contacted, Radio Pakistan Director News & Current Affairs Javed Khan Jadoon told Pakistan Today that the unprecedented short circuiting developed in the main building which gutted the entire machinery of the master control room of the Radio Pakistan.
“Due to the short circuiting, the Master Control Room went down at around 6:30 pm, leaving all channels off air for over an hour. This led to suspension of the transmission of all programmes. The master generator also went off, due to which electricity supply to the entire building was suspended too,” Jadoon said.
However, Jadoon added, immediate efforts were started and the transmission resumed soon afterwards by 7:45 pm. He admitted the suspension of the transmission for such a long period of time was unprecedented in the country’s history but said that the top management would meet on Monday morning to review the situation and evolve a future strategy.
“There have been suspension of transmissions before which did not last more than a minute or two. But this time around, the entire electricity system was gutted which led to the termination of services,” he said.
“We have a quality generator but even the generator got burnt due to the power shock. We have temporarily restored the transmissions.
Asked whether the faulty machinery had led to the power failure, he said it would be premature to comment on the nature of the electricity failure. He hastened to add that the damage was so huge that it was beyond human capacity to immediately repair it.
“I don’t think there is human or equipment failure. Since we have an old equipment so we can’t say anything,” he added. Jadoon said that the damage assessment would be made on Monday morning as DG PCB Mr Sheraz Latif has convened a meeting to review the situation.
“Moreover, the meeting would also adopt future measures at the meeting,” he concluded.
