Paktika radio station equipment auctioned

SHARAN (PAN): Equipment of the Paktin Voice Radio in a border district of southeastern Paktika province has allegedly been auctioned instead of being handed to the authorities, the station’s former officials said on Wednesday.

Haji Suliman Faisal, the former official of the FM radio, told Pajhwok Afghan News the facility’s precious equipment worth $300,000 had been sold in Sharan, the provincial capital.

Without naming anyone selling the equipment, he claimed the materials included a five kilowatts FM transmitter, a tuning unit, 26 computers, a satellite receiver, furniture and other tools.

A resident of Argun district, Mujahid Wazirzoy, said the radio station should have been transferred to the Afghan government during the security transition.

Claiming to have seen the auction, he said it was the only radio that had been broadcasting on Amplitude Modulation (AM) bandwidth in Paktika, informing residents of the situation across Afghanistan.

Provincial Information and Culture Director Bashir Mohammadi said every equipment left behind by foreign troops as part of the security switch would be Afghanistan’s property in line with a presidential decree

“Since the radio’s closure, we have been trying to transfer the equipment into the Afghan custody, but now it is said the machines had been sold by foreigners,” he said.

However, he promised efforts for the recovery of the equipment by involving the governor’s house to contact foreigners.

The radio had been established by foreign troops on their base in the Shakin district in response to Governor Gulab Mangal’s request.

It started airing programmes on Dec. 16, 2005. It had thousands of listeners on both sides of the Durand Line until closed down in April 2013 due to increasing technical problems.

It remains unclear who and why the radio’s equipment have been auctioned and sold.

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