PESHAWAR, Feb 1: As the process of Talibanisation is on the rise in parts of the NWFP, the government has miserably failed to launch the proposed Pashto TV channel, Abaseen, to counter propaganda of the militants in the region.

Absence of the required funds is reportedly delaying launching of the channel. In the wake of soaring militancy in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the Frontier province, the concerned authorities floated the idea to start the channel two years ago with a view to raise the level of people’s awareness in the Pakhtun-dominated settings about the drastic affects of Talibanisation.

Owing to glorification of the Taliban and militants on the international and privately-run satellite channels, the government desperately felt the need for a channel that could depict the evils of Talibanisation and convey the government’s viewpoint to the people.

The government wanted to tell the true story of militancy to the people which weren’t possible given the fact it had no specific channel to reach to the Pakhtun population, who were at the centre stage of the US-led war on terror, hence at the receiving end of Taliban activities.

It was in early 2006 that the federal government asked the authorities at the Pakistan Television (PTV) Peshawar Centre to prepare a feasibility report regarding launch of the proposed channel. A high-ranked official was transferred from the PTV headquarters Islamabad to give impetus to the process.

The producers at the centre worked hard to prepare feasibility of the channel and it was conveyed to the federal government that its proposed cost would be Rs350 million. By provision of the said funds, the channel would go on air permanently. For the initial four months, the Peshawar centre had prepared new programmes.

The PTV headquarters had also agreed to recruit 182 new workers exclusively for the channel. However, the Planning Division Islamabad is yet to accord approval to the launch of the channel despite its approval by the Ministry of Broadcasting and Media Development. The proposal to start the channel is gaining dust at the shelves of the Planning Division.

A few months back, the Awami National Party-led government wrote a letter to the federal government asking it to put on air the proposed channel as soon as possible. The letter had expressed concern that militants were able to portray their point of view on over a dozen TV channels including international media while the provincial government lagged behind to match the unfounded Taliban propaganda.