Category: English Press

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani addresses the signing ceremony of Rs. 2.4 billion optic fibre cable project for Balochistan on Wednesday.

At the gold medal award ceremony and the launch of University Liaison Program organised by Siemens.

In keeping with its past tradition Siemens Pakistan Engineering Co. Ltd awarded gold medals to the students achieving the highest numbers of marks in Electrical or Electronics Department of the leading engineering universities of the country.

At the recently concluded annual sales conference of Siemens Pakistan excellence award were given to Business units and corporate departments of teh year.

There is no paucity of people in Pakistan, both knowledgeable and uniformed, who associate democratic regimes with managerial bankruptcy and institutional ruination.

On the invitation of World Bank Indonesia Mr. Parvez Iftikhar, CEO – USF Pakistan has been visiting Indonedia.

On the occasion of WTIS day 2010, I feel great satisfaction to note that Universal Service Fund of Pakistan is already very actively involved in promoting what the ITU has decided to promote this year by choosing “Better city, better life with ICTs” as the theme of WTIS Day 2010.

Pervez Iftikhar was hired as CEO of the newly formed Universal Service Fund (USF) company 4 years ago. Today USF Pakistan is executing multiple Telecom projects with more than US$ 200 million in the unserved an under-served areas of Pakistan

I must admit I had never heard about the Universal Service Fund (USF) until I met Parvez Iftikhar at Kuala Lumpur airport. We were both headed for the World Congress of IT where Parvez was going to be presenting the USF success story (sharing the stage with none other than Craig Barrett, the CEO of Intel Corporation).

I don’t know if he was excited at the prospect. He seems to be someone who has his feet firmly on the ground. I, on the other hand, always have my feet a few inches in the air at least so I was totally excited that Pakistan was being used as a successful case study. Parvez did a terrific job of showcasing the project in front of the thousands of WCIT delegates. I was so proud.

When Parvez came to Karachi a few weeks ago to sign a deal with Wateen for WiMax to be made available throughout Sindh, I could not miss the opportunity of dragging him onto the set of “In the Line of Wire” and firing all sorts of questions at him. In this conversation, Parvez demystifies the Universal Service Fund for us, tells us why it was set up, what it is doing and what the plans are for the future. Do watch the whole episode because there are certain projects that the USF is planning to launch that could be of interest to some of you youngsters out there, or to women.

In this picture, you see Rabia loading Parvez down with all the magazines that CIO Pakistan publishes.

And in this other picture, she seems to be horrified that he has never seen a copy of CMO. I am sure she will get get back at him by doing a cover story on him in that particular magazine. Poor Parvez – caught in the evil web!

Teletimes International held the first annual “Teletimes International Industry Excellence Awards 2011” on the 22nd of July in Islamabad Club, Islamabad. The launch of the “Teletimes International Industry Excellence Awards” program marked the beginning of an industry recognition program by one of the most widely-circulated publications within the Middle Easr, Asia and Africa regions. These awards were bestowed upon telecommunications and technology organizations as well as industry leaders, who have made a substantial difference to the regional ICT and technology industry and have expended their energies and resources to realize promised value for the end-users.

M/s. WorldCall Telecom Ltd which is an Omantel Co was the Diamond Sponsor of the Award Ceremony. WorldCall was also the Sponsor of the musical night. PTCL was the Platinum Sponsor and Huawei Technologies was the Gold Sponsor of the event, while USF and CRPL were the Co-Sponsors.

The event was presided by the Federal Minister for Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh whereas the second session of the event was carried out under the patronage of Dr. Mohammad Yaseen, Chairman, PTA. Among the guests of honor were Mr. Mehdi Al Abduwani, Chairman WorldCall Ltd, Mr. Walid Irshaid, President and CEO, PTCL and Mr. Colin Hu, Deputy CEO & CTO of Huawei Technologies. The ceremony began with the recitation of Holy Quran by Qari Imlak Hussain Chishti. Following that was the awards distribution in which the Chief Guest Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh presented the awards to the winners.

• Leadership Award for Best Telecom International Operations –Ghassan Hasbani, CEO, International Operations, STC.
• Leadership Award for Best Telecom Services – Mr. Mohammad Omran, Chairman, Etisalat, Mr. Walid Irshaid, President and CEO, PTCL, received the award on his behalf.
• Best Emerging Investor Award – Dr. Amer Al Rawas, CEO, Omantel, Mr. Sohail Qadir, VP, Omantel received the award on his behalf.
• Leadership Award for Best Broadband Services – Mr. Walid M. Irshaid, President & CEO, PTCL.
• Best Converged Services Provider Award – Mr. Mehdi Al Abduwani, Chairman, WorldCall Telecom Ltd.
• Best Regulatory Leadership Award – Dr. Mohammad Yaseen, Chairman, PTA.
• Best Telecom Solution Provider Award – Mr. Alan Wang, CEO, Huawei Technologies Ltd. Mr. Colin Hu, Deputy CEO received the award on his behalf.
• Excellence Award for ICT services to the Corporate Sector – Mr. Khuram Rahat, M.D, Teradata- Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
• Excellence Award for the most innovative mobile plan – Mr. Abdul Aziz, CEO, Ufone.
• Best Regional Telecom Investor Award – Fan Yun Jun, CEO, CM Pak Ltd, Mr. Feng Tuixian, Acting CEO received the award on his behalf.
• Leadership Award for Excellence in IT Enabled Services – Mr. Iqtidar Zaidi, President & CEO, Techaccess.
• Best Telecom and IT Security Solution Provider Award NARUS Inc. – Mr. Riaz Asher Siddiqui, Country Director for Pakistan, NARUS Inc received the award.
• Excellence Award for ICT promotion in under-developed areas – Mr. Parvez Iftikhar, CEO, Universal Service Fund.
• Leadership Award for Academic Services to ICT – Dr. Arshad Ali, D.G, SEECS, NUST.
• Best International Clearing House Solution Provider Award CRPL – Mr. Sohail Minhas, Chief Marketing Officer CRPL received the awards.
• Excellence Award for Individual Contribution to Research in ICT – Mr. Muhammad Amir Malik, Director – ICT, PTA.

After the awards distribution, the chief guest Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh shared his thoughts on the occasion. During his speech Dr. Hafeez talked about how important the IT and telecom sector is to the current Government of Pakistan and said that the government is taking many steps in this regard to ensure long-term improvement and success in
these sectors. He also shared words of appreciation for Teletimes and all other people belonging to the telecom and IT sectors present there.

Later on, Mr. Khalid Athar, Chief Editor, Teletimes International said a few words about Teletimes and the Teletimes awards. The guests of honor were also called upon stage to speak on the occasion in which Mr. Walid Irshaid, CEO PTCL; Mr. Mehdi Al Abduwani, Mr. Tom Wilsom (CEO-SAMENA), Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Mr. Babar Ali Syed, CEO WorldCall and Mr. Colin Hu, CTO Huawei were included.

During the event Mr. Khalid Athar, Chief Editor Teletimes presented the mementos to the following honorable Guests, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Federal Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Chairman PTA, Mr. Mehdi Abduwani, Chairman WorldCall, Mr. Babar Ali Syed, CEO WorldCall, Mr. Thomas W. Wilson, CEO SAMENA, Mr. Feng Tuixia, CFO CM
Pak Ltd., Mr. Colin Hu, CTO Huawei Technologies, and Mr. Naveed Akbar, Director Operations Graphite Communications.

This was followed by a dinner after which a musical program had been organized with WorldCall Ltd. Popular Musicians and Singers from Pakistan which included Humaira Arshad, Maria Unera, Salik Shah and Lams the Band, performed at the musical program.