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| NWFP govt demands Abaseen TV feasibility report |
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| Written by Administrator | |
| Sunday, 06 July 2008 | |
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PESHAWAR: The NWFP government has demanded that the federal government launch Pashto TV channel Abaseen feasibility report for which was forwarded to the federal government a year ago, officials sources have told Daily Times. Feasibility report for the TV channel was sent to Prime Minister Secretariat by the Ministry of Information in 2007, Pakistan Television (PTV) sources said. Former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, they said, was going to launch the Pashto channel for NWFP and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) population, but some hidden hands played their role and forced the previous government for not launching the channel. The government is in dire need of a Pashto TV channel to effectively communicate its policy on war on terrorism to Pashtun population. It also wants to counter propaganda by satellite channels from Afghanistan through a TV channel, the sources said, adding that the channel can play a significant role in establishing peace in FATA. The government has taken notice of the delay in the launch of the channel and efforts are afoot to start it at the earliest, said the sources. The aim of the project, they said, is to counter the Afghan governments anti-Pakistan propaganda and to convey its (Pakistani governments) policy on war on terror to FATA and NWFP population. NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, when contacted, said that the province has forwarded its demand for launching the Pashto TV channel to the federal government. He said that the provincial government will take this initiative with its own limited resources if the federal government further delayed the project. The minister said that it would be an injustice on part of the federal government with the Frontier government if it did not launch the channel within weeks. Work had been completed for launching of the channel. But unknown hidden hands played their role and stopped the channels launch, the minister said, adding the channel has become a dire need of the government to convey its message to illiterate population who are in majority. Earlier, the government had planned to launch the channel from Peshawar on August 14 the last year, but it was delayed due to unknown reasons. PTV officials told Daily Times that plan to launch the Pashto TV channel was 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 TV. PTV Peshawar centre had also put the up-linking facility in place so that transmission could reach the audience through 13 boosters across the NWFP and FATA, they added. The sources said the 2003 project was shelved some time back and again caught attention of the authorities in 2007. akhtar amin |
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