PTV is making a new TV series on Mirza Ghalib and Mughal emperor Babur

After being reappointed as the Minister for Information and Broadcasting in April, Fawad Chaudhry resumed plans for reforms initiated by the ministry in 2018. In light of these reforms, he stated that PTV News would be upgraded to a high-definition (HD) channel by June 1 – a transition that had been delaying since 2019.

“PTV Sports will also become a high definition channel this year,” the minister confirmed. He went on to dub the revival of film and drama a “priority”, and thus, promised loans for young filmmakers.

Now, taking to Twitter he has announced, “After PTV News, we are revamping PTV Sports and Entertainment.” Chaudhry then disclosed that PTV is in the process of making a TV series on Mirza Ghalib and the founder of the Mughal Empire, Babur. “PTV will make an elaborate drama series on [Mughal emperor] Babar and poet Mirza Ghalib in partnership with Uzbekistan and Pakistan,” he added, assuring that preliminary preparations were underway.

Recently, it was also revealed that Turkey and Pakistan are set to co-produce a television series on the life of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi, a revered Muslim general popularly known in the West as Saladin. The series, featuring actors from Turkey and Pakistan, will be shot in Turkey and is planned to have three seasons.

In July, a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Faisal Javed at the PTV headquarters in Islamabad. The channel’s managing director informed that the institution has increased its annual revenue to Rs11 billion, of which its annual expenditure is now between Rs7 billion to Rs8 billion. He further guaranteed that PTV broadcasts would be digitalised by December this year.

The MD went on to relay that no investment had been made in the last 15 years for the provision of modern technology to PTV. “We are trying to make PTV a world-class organisation with a minimum budget so that PTV can be transformed into the voice of the nation, internationally,” he shared.