Pakistan Television Corporation

Pakistan Television Corporation, commonly known as PTV, is the state-run television network in Pakistan. Like many other countries that developed their media in the mid-20th century, PTV was established to project a progressive image of the country to the world as part of the modernity project. However, Pakistan’s case is rather peculiar as television was established under the military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan (1958–1969) who suppressed and censored all voices of dissent and criticism of his regime. Despite rejecting the notion that freedom of expression was the measure of the development of a country, Ayub Khan was able to rally the developed world, including the United States, around his policies that favored foreign investment, industrialization, and modernization. Within this context, Pakistan’s first television was ...