PAKISTAN: Quake survivors to receive radios following customs dispute

June 22, 2006

ISLAMABAD, 22 June (IRIN) - The international media support NGO, Internews, is set to distribute 10,000 radios among quake-affected people in northern Pakistan, after losing a four-month battle to have customs charges on the Chinese-made sets lifted.

The radios will assist quake survivors in gaining information about reconstruction and returns.

"We were set to distribute the radio sets in March but we had an issue with the [Pakistani] authorities on custom charges. Finally now we've paid a sum, which is more than the original price of these radios," Matiullah Jan from Internews Pakistan said in the capital, Islamabad on Wednesday.

"These radio sets are for free distribution amongst people caught in a humanitarian crisis, if the customs duty had been waived we could have brought another 10,000 radio sets in," Jan explained. Internews said customs charges on the radios amounted to US $84,000.

Local media were badly affected by the 8 October earthquake, with public and commercial radio stations largely destroyed. The printing and distribution of newspapers in northern Pakistan was also severely disrupted. Many radio journalists and technicians were killed or injured in the earthquake.

More than 75,000 people were killed and 3.5 million people left homeless after the quake ripped through parts of northern Pakistan - just weeks before the start of the harsh Himalayan winter, creating one of the most challenging humanitarian operations ever.

In the aftermath Internews was quick to launch its 'Pakistan Emergency Information Project' aimed at improving the information flow to survivors.

The UK's Department for International Development (DfID) and Switzerland's Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) together donated some $650,000 for the emergency media support project.