KARACHI: The big old banyan tree in one corner of the premises still lends the same shade it provided to the famous limestone building with the minarets and its surrounding barracks all these years. But the wooden cage for the hummingbirds built around its base is empty now. The clay nesting pots, too, are as vacant as the main building.

The doors to the main building have been closed with little white slips with the date ‘18-01-2024’ pasted on them with Scotch tape. They also have ‘PBC Project Cell (South Zone)’ stamped on them.

This is the current situation at the historical landmark building of Radio Pakistan on M.A. Jinnah Road after it along with the bird cages was quietly vacated by the Anti-Terrorist Wing of Sindh Rangers around the second week of January after around eight years. The cement barriers are still there, outside the main gate so not many realised the move back to normality.

“Yes, true, we have vacated the Radio Pakistan building,” a Sindh Rangers spokesman confirmed to Dawn.

PBC plans to move back news section and most operations to the building

When asked the reason for the sudden move, he sounded exasperated.

“All this while the media has been pointing fingers at us, calling us squatters. And now that we have left the building, you also have an issue with that? Look, we don’t barge into places ourselves. It was only a temporary arrangement provided to us by the Government of Sindh. We have now moved to a new place, designed according to our needs, near the Toll Plaza in Gadap,” he informed.

“Well, if you think about it, this was really not an ideal place for the Ranger to begin with,” said a senior Radio Pakistan employee on condition of anonymity. “They are more comfortable in open cantonment areas, not in the middle of the city. I’m sure they also must have had their own safety issues here,” the senior employee pointed out.

While the Rangers were housed in the old building, Radio Pakistan Karachi operated from another building near the Civic Centre in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

The Rangers were not responsible for that move. The step had been taken after fire broke out in the old building back in October of 2007. The Rangers only arrived there in 2015 to look over security arrangements during Muharram.

While they stayed for some eight years, it must be mentioned here that they did not interfere with Radio Pakistan‘s work being carried out at the old building such as planning at the project cell and the publication of the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation’s monthly Urdu magazine Ahang from there.

Now, there are plans to slowly but gradually move back most operations, starting with sales and marketing, and news section to the historic building.

The building was inaugurated on July 16, 1951, following the Karachi station’s move there from the Intelligence School on Queen’s Road where medium wave transmission from Karachi had kicked off soon after Partition under the able guidance of stalwarts of the likes of Z.A. Bukhari, Shahid Ahmed Dehlvi, S.M. Saleem and Abdul Majid.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2024