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Journalism of Courage
It may sound bizarre. But it is true. Pakistan is promoting its tourism to the strains of Indian patriotic songs! Yes, the audio promo of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation PTDC opens with 8216;Aao baccho tumhe dikyane jhanki Hindustan ki8217;, though with a minor variation. The word 8216;Hindustan8217; in the song written by Pradeep and set to music by Hemant Kumar, has been replaced by Pakistan, apart from a few other changes. But the tune is a straight lift of the Indian version. The promo is frequently played on FM 100 channel broadcast simultaneously from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
This channel, as well as other FM channels in Pakistan, depend a lot on Hindi film music. Incidentally the Fanna song, 8216;Chanda chamke cham cham8217;, and the Bunty 038; Bubli hit, 8216;Kajrare tere naina8217;, are the two most popular numbers in the request programmes. Pakistani listeners are not overly bothered, it seems, about fact that their government has denied a visa to Javed Akhtar, the writer of the 8216;Kajrare8217; song. On all Pakistan8217;s web channels there is not even a whiff of an anti-India slant. In fact, apart from brief news bulletins and the call to namaz five times in a day, it is practically only Indian music for the rest of time.
The disc jockeys refer to Indian singers and lyricists with great deference. Lata Mangeshkar is always 8216;Lataji8217; and Mukesh and Mohd Rafi are referred to as legends. Recently, there was a one-hour special on Mukesh that would have put any Indian channel to shame.
FM 100 began transmission on March 23, 1995, as the first Pakistani round-the-clock radio channel. Called the 8216;Heart Beat of Pakistan8217;, its most popular disc jockey, Haider Abbas, has an excellent command of the language and is always a hit.
Then there is Mast FM 103, available from Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan. One of its good presenters, Syeda Marium Rizvi, generally plays haunting old Indian tracks for her afternoon show,8216;Lunch with Marium8217;. It is a sheer delight to listen to her and her selection.
While FM 100 is available on Real and Windows media player, for Mast FM 103 one has to download Winamp. The software is free and takes less than a minute to download.
Surprisingly none of the popular Indian FM channels, like Radio City, Red FM and Mirchi, are available on the net. According to media reports, Indian players don8217;t consider web radio commercially viable.
But All India Radio takes the cake. For over a year now, AIR has had a web page and a 8216;live audio8217; icon. But when one clicks on it, the message flashes: 8216;The audio programmes are currently not available8217;.
