The first Pashto channel is celebrating its third anniversary. The launching of AVT Khyber - the first Pashto channel in July 2004 was major good news for Pakhtuns despite the reservations of a section of Pakhtun intelligentsia who were considering it as an effort by the establishment to distort the Pakhtun values and social structure and convince the Pakhtuns that they had so called freedom in Pakistan. On the contrary it was considered by the optimists to be a dream come true and a medium to plead the case of Pakhtuns� fight for their rights. It was seen as a ray of hope which Pakhtuns saw after the darkness of decades of war, devastation and disasters as a result of which they got rejuvenated and revitalized and in their excitement raised their level of expectations.

The keen, meticulous and perfectionist nature of Pakhtuns always appreciates the courage but not the wisdom of an initiative until they either compel it to excel or make it obsolete. Consequently Khyber channel had to revise its initial policies along with the change of its management to come unto the expectations of its audience. Since then it has been trying to improve though it has compromised on its pioneering stance of being the representative channel of Pakhtun community.

It seems that Khyber channel is under commercial compulsions, financial constraints as well as political pressures and the Pakistani establishment is directing it to mould the Pukhtun public opinion on sensitive political issues to a view which serves their vested interests.

In the contemporary competitive and challenging world of media, it will be wise for Khyber channel to devise popular policies to attract Pakhtun audience across the globe as it does not enjoy the status of being the only Pashto channel anymore and other Pashto TV channels like �Shamshad� and �Lemar� of Afghanistan are already there to give tough competition to Khyber channel.

The following policy principles are recommended for a channel claiming to be the representative of Pakhtun nation:

1) Promote and Propagate Pashto and Pakhtun culture.

2) Project Pakhtun �Pohaand� [Intelligentsia].

3) Keep the channel independent by giving major coverage to Afghanistan.

4) Project Paktun land as tourist paradise and the main route to central and south Asia.

5) Use the channel for education with major focus on science and technology.

The following is a list of recommendations for further improvement:

1) The presenters of the programs who are able to talk in original Pashto accent should be given opportunity as critics are considering the gloomy side of Khyber channel as an effort to distort Pashto and Pakhtun culture due to inclusion of too much Urdu and non-Pashto speakers.

2) The Music programs planned to be transmitted, despite of their good quality, seem to be a little more than what could be absorbed by Pashtoons. The inclusion of dance culture in music videos seems to be an effort to indianise Pakhtun society. A channel claiming to be Pakhtun family channel should refrain from such negative trends.

3) It is suggested to present traditional and modern music giving due regard to the cultural acceptance factor. Striking a fine balance between the old and the new will be appreciated by the Pakhtun community.

4) Pashto educational programs should be produced. The efforts of Virtual University Pakistan and Ujala TV UAE are good examples in this regard. Distant learning programs should be commenced to promote literacy & education. An effort in the firefighting mode for pointing out the defects in Lord Macaulay�s colonial legacy and confused Pakistani educational system along with the reformation of educational system on scientific grounds is the cry of the day. Career guidance and student counseling programs to highlight job prospects should be considered in conjunction with the effort for educating the masses.

5) A separate program for teaching Pashto is a must. Programs on the prose and poetry of Pashto along with the personalities associated with it would compel the historian of the future to thank this channel for its contribution to the development and promotion of Pashto literature.

6) It is suggested to give a new touch to Pashto drama by using it as a literary medium to project true Pakhtun culture in addition to reforming the negative trends present in the Pakhtun society. The inculcation of Political awareness in the Pakhtun society should not be ignored or overlooked.

7) Any effort to use the channel for social accountability in the interest of the masses will be help the society to get rid of corruption and reformation of institutions.

8) Talk shows on burning and banned topics related to Pakhtun nation with representatives from the opposite camps would reflect the genuine views of the oppressed Pakhtuns in Pakistan.

9) News should be transmitted round the clock and repetition should be avoided. The substance of the news should increase the credibility of the channel and viewers should be able to recognize the difference between ATV and AVT Khyber.

10) The focus of the news should be the Pakhtun community across the globe especially those of Afghanistan and Pakistan while the content of the news should be different from the ISPR oriented propaganda presented on PTV as news. The technical style of presenting news, headlines, alerts and breaking news needs a lot of quality and aesthetic improvement.

11) Documentaries should be borrowed from English channels like Discovery, BBC, National Geographic and Explorations TV and dubbed into Pashto in case it is difficult for the channel to produce documentaries of international caliber. It will be appreciated however if efforts are made to produce more professional documentaries related to the problems and issues of Pakhtuns in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

12) Detailed interview and �hard talk� sessions should be conducted with Pakhtun personalities from all walks of life including scientists, information technology professionals, doctors, engineers, technologists, literary people, poets, artists, players etc.

13) The religious programs should be more interactive sessions than hypnotic and indoctrinating sermons. The advocates of scientific schools of thought like skepticism, agnosticism, nationalism and socialism etc should be given chance to question the dogmatic, non-progressive and pro-establishment versions of religion prevalent in Pakhtun society.

14) Program for projecting the hill stations and historical places in NWFP and Balochistan to promote tourism should be in the priority list of a channel which claims to be a Pakhtun community channel.

15) The website designed for Khyber channel is a heavy one and takes a lot of time to open contrary to those of other channels which have more substance but can still be opened easily by web surfers.

The Khyber channel still has the choice of creating history by helping achieve the summum-bonum of liberating an occupied and oppressed nation to live freely according to their historical norms of Pakhtunwali while it can become history itself and get dissolved into the fathomless ocean of time if it turned out to be just another business venture which airs its voice to become comparatively clear and loud instead of becoming "pride of the proud".