PESHAWAR, Dec 14: Afghanistan is launching a new satellite channel for the Pushto and Dari speaking people. “Three satellite channels have have been launched in Afghanistan since Hamid Karzai came to power,” said Shah Nawaz Janbaz, a former head of the BBC Pushto Service in Peshawar.

Mr Janbaz has arrived from Australia to take up his assignment as director of the new channel. He is holding meetings with PTV officials in Peshawar to purchase dramas and other programmes for the channel, which is to start operations in two months.

“We have already obtained licences and completed other formalities for the channel to be based in Kabul,” he said, adding that Pakistani drama is extremely popular in Afghanistan. PTV producer Syed Masud Ahmad Shah’s dramas are widely watched by people there, especially the young generation.—Correspondent