Radio Pakistan asked to release pending salaries, pensions by Ramazan 20.

ISLAMABAD -- Directions have been issued to the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) to release the pending dues of employees before Ramazan 20.

A Senate committee on Friday also suggested that vehicle owners should be charged up to Rs5,000 for subscription to Radio Pakistan because the national broadcaster needed to be steered out of a financial crises.

A subcommittee of the Senate Standing Committee on Information held a detailed briefing on the financial condition of the PBC and expressed serious concern over non-payment of pensions and salaries to its serving as well as retired employees.

Convener of the subcommittee Senator Irfan Siddiqui asked the management of the PBC to give a deadline for releasing the pending pensions and salaries of the Radio Pakistan employees.

Senate panel suggests charging vehicle owners for subscription to Radio Pakistan

Radio Pakistan Director GeneralTahir Hassan assured the subcommittee that two months' pending pension as well as two months' pending salaries of the employees will be cleared before Eid.

The committee was informed about the financial woes of Radio Pakistan and that it was currently facing a revenue shortfall of around Rs2.2 billion. Officials also requested the senators to help them in obtaining a one-time bailout grant of Rs1 billion to meet its expenditures for May and June.

Senator Siddiqui asked the officials of Radio Pakistan to prepare a financial recovery plan and present it to the Senate standing committee after getting approval of the Radio Pakistan Board.

'The problem is that you people have been acting on your own bypassing the rules - eventually things will not materialise and financial conditions will not improve,' Senator Siddiqui said.

Some options for financial recovery of Radio Pakistan included charging up to Rs5,000 from vehicle owners as radio subscription at the time of registration and payment of the token fee.

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