- By Ajeet Kumar
- Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:55 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
- Pakistan funding English channels to counter India.
- Government lobbied journalists for state-friendly media.
- Aims to shape global narrative, faces funding issues.
Last year, when India launched a massive aerial attack on Pakistan, not only was the Indian media quick to broadcast the news related to Operation Sindoor- a counteroperation in response to the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, neighbouring Pakistani media swiftly put the news on air. However, in a surprise, Pakistani channels had broadcast nearly the same narrative that India played.
Later on, some Pakistani social media handles flooded the misinformation campaign against India; none of the major Pakistani media was able to air the government's take on the attack. This triggered Pakistan to desperately fund new English channels and websites so that it could propagate its agenda globally. To put a narrative war against India, the report claimed the Pakistani government is spending millions.
How did Pakistani govt lobby journalists to start English channels?
According to a report by the New York Times, the Pakistani government and its security agencies have lobbied journalists to start state-friendly English-language news outlets. Citing officials and journalists whom the state had approached for the ventures, the report reveals how the Shehbaz Sharif-led regime has invested in propaganda machinery.
Elian Peltier, The Times’s bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, who is based in Islamabad, in a report published in NYT, said representatives of Pakistani security agencies have lobbied journalists to start a state-friendly English-language news outlet in the past year.
India and Afghanistan are the two main targets
According to the journalist, the new outlets have pursued two main targets — India and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. “Pakistan has traditionally been far too shy and risk-averse in shaping its own story,” said Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. “That is beginning to change.”
A Pakistani official involved in lobbying Pakistani media told NYT the last year's military clash with India prompted Islamabad to initiate new channels and digital platforms when Pakistan became “overwhelmed” with pro-Indian content on social media.
"Security agencies motivated and requested media executives to start new English-language channels to counter those narratives, in part by providing tax exemptions," an official told NYT.
Pakistan wants Al Jazeera-type channels
In some cases, the official said the appeal was patriotic but refrained from disclosing how much the state spent on opening new channels. The report claimed two English channels were opened shortly after the attack. Two more channels are also on the way to start. "To amplify this diplomatic push and polish its global image, cash-strapped Pakistan is now desperately trying to copy the successful state-backed media model used by Turkey (TRT World) and Qatar (Al Jazeera). Islamabad is expanding its own international broadcasting arm, including a revamped Pakistan TV with a new digital wing, while security agencies quietly lobby for new “friendly” English-language outlets to counter “foreign propaganda,” shape narratives abroad, and burnish the country’s reputation," said the official.
How does image positioning help Pakistan?
This gave Pakistan a benefit to when Shehbaz Sharif and Army chief Asim Munir visited White House, where the duo met US President Donald Trump. Currently, it has been widely reported that Pakistan may mediate the ongoing US-Iran war, with possibilities of Islamabad playing a key role in facilitating the place.
Funding crunch
However, the journalist underscored the issue of consistency in funding such initiatives. The journalist noted that Islamabad has a long history of starting television channels in the wake of conflicts with India. He recalled when three English-language news channels were started amid heightened tensions during the 2000s. But the initiatives, unprofitable, quickly folded.
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Journalists said this new media push may face the same fate because the funding and vision are nowhere near those provided by Qatar and Turkey. “The problem is, these efforts pick up steam when a crisis flares up, but nobody is really trying to figure out what comes next,” said Arifa Noor, the host of an Urdu talk show on Dawn TV, one of the country’s few independent news outlets.