Case registered against two FM Radio staff

Staff Report

LAHORE: Lahore Police on Tuesday arrested two FM-103 radio station staff members, Programmes Manager Afaq Bokhari and Administration Manager Farhat Abbas Shah, and registered a case against them under MPO-16 (Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance).

The complainant in the case is Civil Lines Station House Officer (SHO) Arshad Kanju. According to the case, five men rallied against the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) on the institute’s premises and protested against the government, government hospitals and doctors. Police later identified two protestors as Mr Bokhari and Mr Shah while the other three could not be identified. However, FM-103 Director Shafqatullah said the Civil Lines SHO came to FM-103’s Lahore office and asked Mr Bokhari to accompany him as the police wanted FM-103’s help and that the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) wanted to discuss security matters with him over iftari.

He said Mr Bokhari accompanied the SHO to the police station. Later, Mr Shah was also asked to come to the police station to meet the SHO and ASP. The two men did not return to the FM-103 office after iftari and the management got worried. Police told the FM-103 management that the two men were not at the police station.

Later at night, the management got to know that police had registered a case against both staff members and three other unidentified people. Mr Shafqatullah said FM-103 had broadcast a report against PIC’s malpractices and called the staff members’ arrest police high-handedness.

However, sources told Daily Times that FM-103 had been having problems with the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) over broadcasting BBC Urdu Service news bulletins from its stations.

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