Pakistani children would be able to watch the Urdu version of Sesame Street – the most-watched children’s television show in the world – five days a week on both PTV 1 and PTV 2 from early April.
Initially 104 episodes of the Open Sesame series produced by Children’s Television Workshop, UDA, have been selected by Pakistan Educational Network (PEN), an organization developed by Pakistanis and Americans and registered in Pakistan as a non-profit corporation, which would bear the expenses incurred on adaptation and dubbing of the show.
PEN believes that the Urdu version, named ‘Khul Ja Sim Sim’, would provide a balanced curricular contribution to a child’s learning environment in a family setting. Educator, writer and media personality Shoaib Hashmi is the script translator and dubbing adviser of the half-hour shows, while Ghazanfar Ali, the founder of Ilm Film, an off-shoot of Combine Media Group, is the executive producer.
— News selected by Saeed Mohiuddin, Reference Library filed by our correspondent, The News
