Business tycoon Malik Riaz has decided to close the Urdu language Aap News television channel over "unavoidable legal and technical reasons", it emerged on Saturday.

The development was confirmed to Dawn.com by National Press Club President Shakeel Qarar as well as an employee of Aap News, who did not want to be named.

According to an internal staff email, dated April 11 and seen by Dawn.com, the broadcast of the news channel will stop from today. "The administration has decided that salary of all employees for the month of March will be paid on April 14 and 15 while the payment of salaries for the notice period between April 11 and May 11 will be paid on April 21 and 22," reads the email.

Riaz will use his licensing rights to launch a new channel where employees of Aap News would be hired on a "priority basis", according to the email, which further states that employees would receive 50 per cent of their monthly salaries on the 5th of each month for the next three months.

The Lahore-based channel was part of the Aap Media Network.