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Pakistan
Telecommunications
In the 1980s, considerable effort was made to upgrade the telecommunications
system. The Sixth Five-Year Plan, for instance, called for a public-sector
investment of Rs10.1 billion to improve and expand the telephone
and telex systems. In the mid-1990s, all overseas telecommunications
used the Intelsat-VI satellite of the International Telecommunications
Satellite Organization. There were also plans to launch a Pakistani
satellite based on very small aperture earth stations, which would
provide nationwide coverage for domestic telecommunications. The
number of telephone connections increased from 461,000 in June
1984 to 1.6 million in March 1993, when the government announced
that the Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation would be privatized.
A new entity, the National Telecommunications Network, was planned
to assume responsibility for the government's own network.
Radio and television are dominated by government corporations.
The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) has a monopoly on
radio broadcasting. In March 1992, there were 705,000 licensed
radios, but the actual number of radios in use was estimated at
10 million. The PBC operates twenty-four medium-wave and three
short-wave transmitters for its domestic programs and two medium-wave
and eight short-wave transmitters for its external service. There
are six networks for domestic service--one national network and
the five regional networks for Balochistan, the Islamabad Capital
Territory, the North-West Frontier Province, the Northern Areas,
Punjab, and Sindh. The external service broadcasts in fifteen
languages--Arabic, Burmese, Bengali, Dari, English, Farsi, French,
Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Swahili, Tamil, Turkmen, Turkish,
and Urdu. An important target audience is Pakistanis working in
the Middle East. Azad Kashmir Radio, a separate government-run
organization, broadcasts in Azad Kashmir.
In early 1994, the government-controlled Pakistan Television
Corporation (PTV) carried programs produced in five centers--
Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta. Programming
comes under the purview of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,
and goals include providing wholesome entertainment, promoting
national solidarity, and projecting an Islamic way of life. In
November 1992, PTV began broadcasting on a second channel made
possible by Japanese financing and technology. This channel is
intended mainly for educational purposes. A commercial station
was also established in the early 1990s and provides competition
for PTV. In 1993 it was estimated that there were over 2 million
television sets, and the number is expected to climb steeply in
the 1990s. The main PTV channel is capable of reaching 87 percent
of the population, while the second channel is accessible to 56
percent of the population.
Data as of April 1994
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