Vandalised PBC building opened for public to witness scale of destruction violence

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: The administration of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) on Monday opened the vandalized building of PBC Peshawar for public to witness the scale of destruction and violence caused by the miscreants on May 10 to the offices of the two national media organisations including PBC and Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

Students of different colleges and schools and general public visited different sections of the building here and were briefed about the losses caused by angry mob during violent protests in the provincial capital.

They were informed that Peshawar Radio Station is the oldest in Pakistan and set up in 1935, while Marconi on the request of Abdul Qayyum Khan personally engineered a transmitter and donated to it which was inaugurated by Sir Ralph Edwin Hotchkin Griffith, the Governor of the then North-West Frontier Province.

The officials of Radio Peshawar told the students that the angry mob not only vandalized the building of PBC but also took computers and other electronic appliances with them which were having audio archive converted from tape to CDs and computers.

An official of PBC Ikramullah said that the staff saved audio archive and record of prominent leaders, singers, scholars and others in their original form on the day of incident however the converted record was stolen by the attackers.

The visitors were informed that PBC always promoted peace, tolerance and harmony in the society and attacking such an institution was unjustified, adding that those who attacked the building were not patriotic Pakistan.

The PBC building would remain open for public till Friday, May 19, Ikramullah said adding that students could visit the building from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. while the general public would be allowed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, with generous financial assistance by the Corp Commander Peshawar, the renovation and rehabilitation work started at the building while the Peshawar station started its transmission on the very next day of the incident after a transmitter donated by the Corp Commander. (APP)