July 08, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 11, 1427

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PESHAWAR, July 7: The Pakistan Television Corporation is launching a new Pashto channel from its Peshawar centre in August.

“The new channel is likely to be launched on Aug 14 by the president or the prime minister. Only a go-ahead from the top brass is awaited,” said an official. According to him, the estimated annual expenditure of the channel – Abaseen – will be Rs350 million.

“The channel will air programmes in local languages for rural and urban communities,” said a feasibility report sent to the PTV headquarters in Islamabad.

It requested the PTV headquarters to decentralise approval of programmes to ensure smooth running of the new channel and unhindered production.

The report said that according to the initial plan, 42 programmes would be aired every week.

It also asked the headquarters to create 182 new posts for the channel.

The government had planned long ago to launch four channels in regional languages. Now, the government is likely to first launch the Abaseen channel that will be watched in more than 25 countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.