Devastating floods in Pakistan have claimed over 1600 lives and displaced over 18 million – or 1 out of every 10 people in the country – and the disaster shows no sign of abating. Significant resources are flowing into the region to provide immediate relief. But access to relevant, up-to-date, timely, and authentic data from the affected...
Prime Minister’s adviser for Telecom and IT, Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa has urged PTCL to increase salaries by 50 percent of their running packages. PTCL’s share holder agreement and telecom act preserves employees’ rights, expressed Mr. Khosa in a letter written to Prime Minister of Pakistan. He said that PTCL employees’...
The Universal Service Fund, which has proved to be the best operating USF in the world and was being used as a benchmark by other countries, is operating without any budget in this fiscal year, resulting no operations and non-payment of salaries to its staff since June 2010. After recent clash between Mr. Khosa and various IT and Telecom organizations...
For last few years, we have been hearing about DTH (Direct to Home) and its expected launch in Pakistan. However, it seems that DTH is overlooked in past fiscal years and people are still waiting for something to come in especially after Digital Cable TV system. As per PEMRA’s annual report, penetration of Digital cable TV system is still under penetration....
National Assembly has accepted a bill to be presented in the house urging amendments in Pakistan Telecommunication Act 1996. Bill has proposed amendments in 8 sections of Telecommunication Act, 1996 with 12 amendments in total. The purpose of amendment is to introduce procedures for defining and tackling grey traffic. Moreover, PTA members are proposed...
By Ahmed Rayyan Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik is in action against cellular operators and directed them to come up with a new business solution in 15 days to post SIM (Subscribers Identity Modules) on buyers address. He expressed his concern over the selling of pre-activated SIMs in the market and warned operators stop doing it at any cost...
We have reported before that President Asif Ali Zardari is quite techy as he keeps an eye on latest technologies and their uses. Recently, he proposed the authorities to use Google Earth to survey government owned lands to monitor illegal owners and land mafias. We hope, President is not going to order for a committee and a budget of some million dollars...
We know that Mr. Khosa was removed as Minister in-charge for IT and Telecom, in protest to which he had resigned being adviser to Prime Minister, which was not accepted by President Asif Ali Zardari. It is yet interesting that Mr. Khosa presented his resignation to Mr. Zardari instead Prime Minister, his direct boss. With his resignation to President...
After multiple controversies, Sardar Muhammad Latif Khosa has been removed as Minister In-charge for IT and Telecom Ministry with immediate effect. Mr. Khosa remained Minister In-charge for MoIT for four months. Mr. Khosa will continue working as Adviser on IT but powers of the Minister are withdrawn. Prime Minister will be the Minister Incharge of...
The FIA says there is no law in the country at the moment to check cyber crimes and has thus closed the investigation against the son of PPP Information Secretary Fauzia Wahab, who threatened Editor Investigation The News Ansar Abbasi some months ago in a text message, reported The News. “The News” disclosed this fact citing a reply made...
UAE based telecom firm, Etisalat is looking for discount and said that disputed land’s value (some 450 million dollars) should be deducted from the PTCL deal, said a letter written to Pakistan Government and acquired by Reuters. Etisalat was offered discount to pay 2.6 billion dollars in installments along with other incentives – when it was...
Ministry of Environment has extended the deadline for cellular companies to shift their cell towers to solar energy until further orders. Earlier, Punjab Government had ordered all cellular companies to shift their towers to solar energy before June 30th, 2010 to avoid electricity disconnections. In a press advertisement today, Ministry of Environment...
In response to Punjab Government’s notice to shift all cellular towers in the Punjab to solar energy, a joint plea from cellular companies is seeking attention from Ministry high ups, who are currently on leave. Following is what “The News” had to report based on APP’s story; The row between Punjab government and Telecom operators...
Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom has confirmed that it has received ban orders from Lahore High Court on Thursday to ban Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, Bing, YouTube, Amazon etc , reported BBC Urdu, citing unnamed sources in the Ministry. It merits mentioning here that inter-ministerial committee of IT Ministry decides on how to and why...
Adviser to Prime Minister on Information Technology, Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa has said that Pak-Iran co-operation in telecom sector can bring economic development. Terrestrial optical fiber connectivity between both the countries will be economically beneficial for the two nations and subsequently will promote peace in the region. The adviser...
