MUMBAI: CNBC is gearing up to set up base in Pakistan early next year by launching CNBC Pakistan, which will be the country's first international business channel. UAE's minister of higher education and scientific research and CNBC Pakistan chairman Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan announced that the channel will launch in the first quarter of 2005.     
Al Nahayan was quoted in the Dubai-based Khaleej Times as saying that broadcasting from state-of-the-art studios and production facilities in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, the channel would transmit live programmes in both Urdu and English from Pakistan's perspective 24x7.
He also said that new standards of accurate and credible TV journalism would be set via this channel and that they were looking at hiring new talent to operate the new television station.
CNBC Pakistan president Zafar Siddiqui was also quoted in the report as saying that the channel would be a value addition to the Pakistani media landscape and would utilise the global resources of the CNBC network to deliver a continuous flow of relevant, engaging news and information from all of the Pakistani markets and from global business centres.
CNBC Pakistan is owned by VNTV - a Pakistani company - and has access to the CNBC global network and the resources of Dow Jones.
According to the KT report, VNTV, which is a public limited company with a paid-up capital of $14 million, will offer its shares to the general public for subscription by the end of year 2005. A total of four slots - two each at Pas-2 and Pak-Sat have been booked to air the transmission for the viewers across the globe.