Text of report by official news agency Associated Press of Pakistan (APP)Islamabad, 8 January:
Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) has decided to retain and reinforce its external service broadcasts in Hindi, Gujarati, Bangla, Pushto, Dari, Persian and Chinese languages.
A meeting chaired by Secretary Information Syed Anwar Mahmood and attended by Director General PBC Javed Akhtar and senior officials discussed the contents of the services to be continued with improved content, quality and strong transmission signals, a press release issued here Saturday said.
The contents of the programmes of these services will be improved in line with the international broadcast partners with more emphasis on news and current affairs along with entertainment, it added.
Simultaneously there would be readjustment of broadcast transmitters and the services would be relayed through powerful transmitters to improve the signals of the broadcasts.
A decision to revamp the external services of Radio Pakistan was taken last year. It was decided that there should be a thorough review of the external services broadcasts and wherever needed these services must be strengthened and in other cases they should be discontinued.
The decision to revamp the external services will improve the quality of broadcasts of the essential services and convey the message from Pakistan to overseas listeners.
The secretary assured that the staff which has become surplus due to revamping would be absorbed in other services of Radio Pakistan and no one would be made jobless.
(Source: Associated Press of Pakistan news agency, Islamabad, in English 0941gmt 08 Jan 08 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
