electrical engineer and
broadcaster who is credited as one of the founders of
Pakistan Television
Pakistan Television Corporation ( ur, ; reporting name: PTV) is the Pakistani state-owned broadcaster. Pakistan entered the television broadcasting age in 1964, with a pilot television station established at Lahore.
Background
Historical co ...
(PTV) — the state-owned
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
and
commercial broadcasting television network. In addition, he also helped expand the commercial activities of
Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation.
Brief PTV history
First in 1961, a major Pakistani industrialist
Syed Wajid Ali
Syed Wajid Ali ( ur, سید واجد علی) (20 December 1911 – 14 June 2008) was a leading industrialist of Pakistan who is also known for his services to the Olympic Movement. He became the President of Pakistan Olympic Association in 19 ...
(owner of the Packages Limited company) initiated a television project in Pakistan by signing a joint venture agreement with
Nippon Electric Company
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
(NEC) of
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Ubaidur Rahman, an electrical engineer, was appointed by Syed Wajid Ali to head and develop this television project. Many pilot transmission tests were conducted. Then the control of this project was given to
President Ayub Khan
Muhammad Ayub Khan (Urdu: ; 14 May 1907 – 19 April 1974), was the second President of Pakistan. He was an army general who seized the presidency from Iskander Mirza in 1958 Pakistani coup d'état, a coup in 1958, the first successful cou ...
's government in 1962. The project people began their work in a small studio within a tent in the
Radio Pakistan
Radio Pakistan serves as the national public broadcaster for radio in Pakistan. Although some local stations predate Radio Pakistan's founding, it is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Pakistan. The network was established on 14 Augus ...
compound in
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
, Pakistan. Here a
transmission tower
A transmission tower, also known as an electricity pylon or simply a pylon in British English and as a hydro tower in Canadian English, is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line.
In electrical ...
was also constructed. Finally, on 26 Nov 1964, the first TV transmission from Lahore took place.
[
In 2012, former Managing Director of PTV ]Agha Nasir
Agha Nasir (February 9, 1937 – July 12, 2016) born in Meerut, India, was a Pakistani director, producer, broadcaster and a TV playwright. He started his career at Radio Pakistan in 1955. He later directed TV films and worked in the Pakistan ...
wrote a book on the history of PTV titled: 'PTV: Another Day, Another World' which also gives details of his experiences while he worked there for over 50 years.Interview: Agha Nasir on Dawn (newspaper)
Published 16 Sep 2012, Retrieved 1 December 2018
References
Punjabi people
Pakistani electrical engineers
Pakistan Television Corporation executives
Pakistani television people
Recipients of the Pride of Performance
Recipients of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz
History of mass media in Pakistan
{{Pakistan-tv-bio-stub