PKonweb Monitor

The United States Government’s official broadcasting arm Voice of America’s (VOA) 4-hour Pashto language program has been blocked by Pakistan’s broadcasting authority due to its alleged deviation from agreement.

The US state-owned radio service VOA however continues to avail Radio Pakistan’s hour-long airtime for its Urdu transmission daily.

“Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) has blocked the four hours of Pashto transmission of VOA, while the Urdu service is still continuing,” official sources told TheNation.

The official public-relations arm of the military, ISPR, also held meetings with PBC’s administration prior to the jamming of VOA’s Pashto transmission.

Under the PAK-US related agreement, VOA was allowed to broadcast a 30-minute Urdu program in the morning transmission (6 am) and similar program in the evening (6 pm) from FM-93 and other networks, besides a 4-hour program in Pashto from Radio Peshawar.

VOA would have to use PBC’s equipment and transmitters in Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore to air its transmissions, the deal said.

In 2004 under Musharraf regime, the VOA programms were allowed to be broadcast for two hours daily from eight PBC stations. These broadcasts were allowed without clearance and approval by any Ministry or government agency.

In 2006, the United States set up a transmitter in Afghanistan for the radio broadcast of its political and military agenda.

Four years later, these VOA programs were being broadcast from Pakistan, the paper claimed.

When contacted, PBC spokesman Mubashar Majoka said that his organization had not leased out its transmitters to VOA rather it had sold airtime against a certain amount per year. It is a misperception that VOA broadcasts from PBC transmission facilities will be used to unleash US propaganda, he added.