ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would inaugurate Pakistan Television (PTV) HD transmission on August 4.
Replying to a question in the Senate, he said that the PTV News was fully upgraded as HD, PTV Home partially and PTV Sports would also be made HD through public-private partnership in the next six months.
He said that previous governments hired 1800 daily wagers in PTV and caused financial losses to the organisation, who were later regularised and are being paid Rs320 million. He expressed the hope that next year PTV will not take licence fees being charged now.
During the last two years, the performance of the department has improved and the present government would make PTV a profitable entity.
In a written reply, the minister said that the government has not allocated Rs200 billion for the project; however, in 2018 a Public Sector Development Programme funded project titled “Modernization of camera and production equipment of PTVC” was approved at an estimated cost of Rs555.59 million.
He added that the project was successfully being executed by procuring equipment on competitive bid basis and establishment of the Letter of Credit (L/C).
