BBC Urdu launched in May 1940 as the BBC's Hindustani Service, and took its current name in 1966.

It is a multi-media broadcasting service, providing radio and online content to Urdu speaking audiences across the world.

Nearly 13 million people throughout Pakistan listen to BBC Urdu service's radio programmes and millions across the world access its popular website bbcurdu.com each month.

BBC Urdu's strength lies in the regional knowledge and expertise of its correspondents living and working across South Asia.

These include the well-known voices of Shakeel Akhtar in Delhi, Ali Hassan in Hyderabad, Zaffar Abbas, Aijaz Mehar and Mubbashir Zaidi in Islamabad, Idrees Bakhtiar and Abdul Rasheed Shakoor in Karachi, Shahid Malik and Adnan Adil in Lahore, Zulfiqar Ali in Muzaffarabad, Haroon Rashid and Rahimullah Yusufzai in Peshawar, Azizullah Khan in Quetta and Altaf Hussain in Srinagar.

BBC Urdu broadcasts three times a day. Its flagship programme Sairbeen provides 60 minutes of news and current affairs a day. It is essential listening for anyone wanting to keep up-to-date and informed of events in Pakistan and the rest of the world. It broadcasts seven days a week, at 8.00pm local time.

South Asia wakes up to Jahanuma at 6.30am. The 30- minute daily breakfast programme sets the day's news agenda, ensuring listeners are fully informed.

At the end of the day there is Shabnama, a 30-minute round-up of the main events, starting at 10.30pm.

In addition, BBC Urdu brings listeners weekly magazine features on sports, science and the economy.

bbcurdu.com launched in May 2001. It is updated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and attracts around seven million page impressions a month.

The ability to connect with its international audience is at the heart of bbcurdu.com, and the site receives emails from users as far apart as Finland and Japan - as well as remote areas of Pakistan.

Visitors are able to read transcripts and listen to the audio of radio programmes, and participate in online debates. Its content includes up-to-the minute news, features and analysis on Pakistan, India and South Asia, as well as news from the rest of the world.