SHIFTING of PTV National transmissions from Karachi to Peshawar hasn't proved any good against the expectations of the authorities in Peshawar owing to lack of staff, budget and separate arrangements.

On September1, 2008, the PTV National transmissions that used to be aired from Karachi were shifted to Peshawar with a view to reach to the local talent and minimise chances of mistakes in the programme.

Six years ago, the government launched PTV National as part of its efforts to promote regional languages. The PTV National headquarters in Karachi put on air programmes it received from regional PTV centres in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh.

Later, it proved a futile exercise as the transmission from Karachi were looked after by non-Pakhtuns that often caused mistakes and errors prompting the PTV authorities to air Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Time transmission from Peshawar. However, with the help of two producers, the PTV Peshawar is finding it hard to produce quality programmes for its two and half hour live transmissions from 9pm to 11:30pm.

The PTV Home with 500 employees gives one hour transmissions per day.

Still there is visible improvement in PTV National programme when compared with the time when these were aired from Karachi but the authorities are unable to improve the programmes to a desired level.

The PTV National is still pregnant with many flaws that hinders its growth and the achievement of the objectives for which it has been launched. Among the challenges is budgetary allocation, which is still issued from Karachi. A paltry amount of Rs800,000 for the current quarter is a peanut given the stuff aired from the PTV National.

The transmissions include current affairs, talk shows, current affairs programme and re-telecast of past dramas and songs besides inviting literary people, doctors, experts and performers.

During the live transmissions, it receives calls from the viewers from all the countries but it has yet to prove its mettle on the local turf. The reason is that the PTV National transmissions go on Cable Television only due to which they cannot reach to the general population like PTV Home, the transmission of which are aired on terrestrial network.

The establishment of terrestrial network casts only a couple of millions of rupees, the returns of which would be in million in the shape of marketing and advertisement.

The transmissions also include Hindko programmes on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The PTV National can be used for campaign against militancy provided its remissions are put on the terrestrial network to reach the population with its budget from Peshawar with adequate staff. According to experts, the PTV National was initially regarded as rehearsal for the Abaseen Channel that had been planned by the government to provide exclusive channels of regional languages to all the population.

The Abaseen TV was about to be launched but suddenly the files regarding the channel went missing and the issue is now dead.

The efforts are focused on the PTV National, which the local authorities want to utilise to the advantage of the government policy of raising public awareness regarding militancy.

People regard PTV as a family channel and are firm believers in its transmissions. What is required is to provide enough staff, allocate budget to it from the PTV Peshawar centre and install boosters to enable all the population to watch the transmission on the general TV antenna rather than Cable TV, because only 5 per cent or even less people have cable net work.