PESHAWAR, Jan 25: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is likely to approve the launch of a new Pushto channel soon, sources said. “Feasibility report regarding the Pushto channel ‘Abaseen’ has already been moved to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat from the Ministry of Information,” said sources, adding that the prime minister was likely to convene a meeting very soon to approve the project.

“The government is in dire need of a Pushto channel to effectively present its viewpoint regarding war on terrorism to the Pukhtun population. The government also wants to counter the propaganda by satellite channels from Afghanistan,” the sources said, adding that the channel could play a significant role in establishing peace in Fata.

The government had taken notice of the delay regarding the launch of the new channel and efforts were afoot to start it at the earliest, said the sources.

Earlier, the government had planned to launch the channel from Peshawar on August 14 last year, but it was delayed due to unknown reasons.

Officials at the PTV headquarters in Islamabad told this correspondent that the plan to launch the Pushto language channel had been approved a year ago and it was the prime minister who had given the go-ahead in this regard.

The officials said that a state-of-the-art studio and master control room had been set up specifically for ‘Abaseen’. Peshawar centre of the PTV had also put the uplinking facility in place to enable the 13 boosters across the NWFP and Fata to ensure that transmission reached the entire area, they added.

The sources said that the project that had been shoved under the carpet some time back had again caught the attention of the higher authorities.

“Now the plan, it looks, will see the light of the day very soon,” they said.

Owing to a big Pukhtun population, the channel was expected to generate a good revenue, said the sources, adding that it would cost Rs350 million.

They said the channel would be launched sooner after a go-ahead from the prime minister. The Peshawar centre had already prepared programmes for four a period of months, they added.

The feasibility report sent to the prime minister for approval had called for creation of 182 posts for the channel.

The government had planned four channels in regional languages, but only one had so far been launched from Quetta, they said.