ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Saturday expressed dismay at non- provision of services, despite capacity, to any Pakistani or regional customer on local satellite, Pak sat, launched in December 2002.

He was presiding over the sixth of a series of consultative workshops-cum-meetings of the Project Committee on National Satellite Development Programme. The workshop was organized by Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco).

Information Technology Secretary Khalid Saeed, Science and Technology Secretary Khawaja Zaheer Ahmad, the commission's chairman, Maj-Gen (retired) Raza Hussain, Special Communication Organization (SCO) Chairman Maj- Gen Waheed Akhtar Malik and heads of other research organizations were also present on the occasion.

The minister said the Asian region, particularly Pakistan, was growing rapidly in the area of broadcasting, a major consumer of satellite capacity. He, however, believed that the capacity made available on the new Pak sat satellite, Paksat-1R, would be a major boon for the local media and therefore would be an irreversible path of growth both in terms of coverage and content.

The electronic media in the country has shown explosive growth over the past two to three years which is unprecedented and we expect the Pak sat programme to be a major player in the continuing growth of the sector, the minister said.

The government was also expecting a phenomenal growth in high-speed internet usage through the broadcast medium. Mr Leghari emphasized the need for careful deliberation before approving the final design of Paksat-1R satellite.

He expressed the confidence that a number of opportunities for the social sector would also emerge once an active national satellite programme was put in place. "Today we are not able to easily implement education TV since these projects are reliant on existing commercial satellites from foreign entities which are not optimized for our national requirements making their use in these projects cumbersome and expensive," he stressed.