In religiously conservative Pakistan, a television call-in advice show is tackling an issue rarely discussed in public: sex.

Once a week, a doctor appearing on HTV's Clinic Online focuses on sexual issues, fielding questions about sexually transmitted diseases, fertility and how to deal with husbands having multiple wives in the Muslim-majority country of 180 million people.

"It wasn't an easy decision," said Faizan Syed, the CEO of HTV, a private satellite channel. "The biggest question was how society would perceive or handle it."