Flare October 2014.pdf

Zubair Ahmed Kasuri Editor

Ismail Qureshi Senior Sub- Editor

Usman YaqoobDirector Marketing Syed Farhat AliManager Marketing

Zafar Khan AfridiSenior Graphic DesignerM. Naeem MughalGraphic Designer

Azhar JavedGeneral Manager

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Editor sOctober 2014

Aalishan Pakistan had received very positive and good responsein India. Indian people had showed interested to buy Pakistanistuffs especially garments and boutiques. I must appreciate theefforts of TDAP which arranged a successful fair in India. India isthe biggest market of the world which consistent more than 1.27billion people.After the returned from the Fair, TDAP Chief Executive S. M.

Muneer said the lifestyle Pakistan exhibition 'Aalishan Pakistangenerated a business of around $15 million along with futureprospect deals valued at $ 20-25 million signed during B2Bmeetings.He said the response from Indian trade community as well as

consumers, from the very first day was overwhelming and around500,000 people visited the event during the four days of the event.TDAP held Lifestyle Pakistan exhibition 'Aalishan Pakistan' in

India during September 11-14, 2014 at Hall No.18 & 14 of PragatiMaidan, New Delhi. The exhibition was a true showcase of theprogressive Pakistan with first-ever collective presence of topPakistani brands anywhere in the world. A delegation of high-profile and leading businessmen was also

part of this exhibition. A fashion show was organised on 10thSeptember. All major brands showcased high-end designs fromPakistan. He spoke on women empowerment and bridging dividesthrough cultural exchange.TDAP also organized a business seminar on 12th September in

partnership with Indian Federation of Chamber of Commerce andIndustry and Indian Commerce Ministry. The Pakistani FPCCI andIndian FICCI inked an MoU strengthening the relations betweenboth chambers. The FICCI also organized B2B meetings betweenPakistani and Indian Business houses.TDAP Chief Executive S. M. Muneer said: "I am taking this

opportunity to thank the Indian authorities for their utmostcooperation provided to us in organizing 'Aalishan Pakistan'. We arealso thankful to Pakistani Commerce Ministry for the maximumsupport we received. Of course, I am personally grateful to mymedia friends for disseminating productive and positiveinformation about our efforts and Aalishan Pakistan. I am pleasedto encourage my TDAP colleagues, who worked tirelessly to madethis mega event possible. Pakistani High Commission at New Delhiwas fully involved in the exhibition and had extended full logisticsupport."

A successful fairheld in India

8

Note

Zubair Ahmed Kasuri, (Editor-in-Chief) publisherof FLARE leading telecom magazine, printedit from Qasim Naeem Art Press, Near BankRoad, Main Bund Road, Lahore and published from 46J, Gulberg III, Lahore.

National ICT Research and DevelopmentFund is funding a project to develop allnecessary technologies for an intelligentsoftware system for efficient and effec-

tive fault and performance management intelecommunication networks.

The proposed system, costing Rs 13.02 million,is expected to be of significant value and interestto telecom operators and will help increase relia-bility of the services, prevent loss of revenue andreduce cost of operations.

The proposed Intelligent System, being exe-cuted in collaboration with Lahore University ofManagement Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, will be ar-chitected as a standalone utility for fault and per-formance management and will be capable ofintegrating with numerous existing operationalsupport systems of the telecom operators.

Official sources said the solution will provideadditional value to the operators who will adaptthe GIS based NMS solution. An open architecturefor this application will be developed so that the in-telligent system could be customized and extendedin the future.

They said the current project proposal is a nat-ural outgrowth of the GIS based project.

It merits mentioned here that with an enormousgrowth in the Pakistani telecommunication sectorin the last 5 years, ensuring Quality of Service(QoS) for the offered services, reliability, efficiency,and reduced cost of operations have become thecentral focus of most of the operators.

For managing a telecommunication network,different quality parameters needed to be achieved.

During occurrence of faults, the network per-formance should not fall below a defined thresh-old. The root cause of the occurring fault shouldbe discovered at the earliest. The occurred faultshould be repaired and troubleshooting should beperformed along with management of network as-sets. The service provider should be able to predictdegradation in the provided network related serv-ices.

The traditional solution to the specified prob-lem is a Software System that performs Root CauseAnalysis and Performance Management to ensuredesigned QoS. Such system manages alarm condi-tions, handles and predicts expected degradationof performance of the network.

Most of the operators in Pakistan have stayedaway from acquiring this solution at the time of ini-tial deployment. At later stages, while they desireto deploy these solutions to help sustain business,stay competitive and be able to provide high mar-gin services, cost again becomes a factor due to thecompetitive nature of the market.

Thus, the sources said, there is a clear need toprovide cost effective solutions for fault and per-formance management that are customized andtailored to the deployment architecture and envi-ronment in Pakistan.

ICT R&D Fund has previously funded projectsof extreme relevance to the telecom sector in Pak-istan. One such project is "GIS based Optical FiberNetwork Monitoring and Management System De-sign and Development", which is near completion.

The resulting system has been demonstrated toa number of telecom operators in Pakistan whohave shown keen interest in the solution and are inthe process of evaluation.

Meanwhile, a project to develop Pakistan's firsttrade portal is near completion that would integrateend to end domestic and international trade ofcountry on a single electronic platform.

The basic objective of this electronic single win-

dow was to integrate all the crucial elements ofsupply chain like transport, terminals, shipping,banks, legal firms, brokers and traders with the easeof use available through the Internet and mobile,thus capitalizing on telecommunication boom inthe country.

Ministry of Information Technology andTelecommunication (MoIT)initiated the projectcalled - Mobile and Electronic Trade for Pakistan(MEETPK) at a cost of Rs. 38.2 million in collab-oration with U Tade (Pvt) Limited, Islamabad.

Official sources said the other aim was to en-sure services, specifically designed for Pakistanibusinesses within and outside Pakistan and to pro-vide visibility to businesses and products both innational and international market.

They said the portal would also help reduce thecost of doing business by facilitating businessesand at the same time provide online services suit-able for trade and business and most importantlyto educate and familiarize all stakeholders regard-ing use and benefit of such services.

This particular project intends to use commu-nication boom in the country to take information,knowledge and opportunities to doorstep of Pak-istanis through Internet and mobile devices so asto enhance and optimize economic potential, thesources said.

The basic objective of this project is to createsuch a portal. Services specifically designed for thePakistani businesses that facilitate trade within andoutside Pakistan, provides visibility to our busi-nesses and products both in the national and theinternational market, reduce the cost of doing busi-ness by facilitating businesses, in being aware of,and complying with domestic and internationalregulations, to provide online services suitable fortrade and business and most importantly to edu-cate and familiarize all stakeholders regardinguse and benefit of such services. This particularproject intends to use the communication boomin Pakistan to take information, knowledge andopportunities to the door step of Pakistanisthrough internet and mobile devices so as to en-hance and optimize Pakistans economic poten-tial.

The object of this project is to build Pakistansfirst trade portal, the first E-Logistics platform,an electronic single window that integrates end toend domestic and international trade of Pakistan ona single electronic platform integrating all the cru-cial elements of the supply chain, like transport, ter-minals, shipping, banks, legal firms, brokers andtraders with the ease of use available through the in-ternet and mobile, thus capitalizing on the telecom-munication boom in the country. n

Free download | FLARE.PK10

TECHNOLOGY | Waleed Akhtar

A project to develop Pakistan'sfirst trade portal is near comple-tion that would integrate end toend domestic and internationaltrade of country on a single elec-tronic platform

During occurrence of faults, the network performanceshould not fall below a defined threshold. The root cause ofthe occurring fault should be discovered at the earliest. Theservice provider should be able to predict degradation in theprovided network related services

Intelligent SoftwareSystem to help to reducecost of telecom networks

The hysterically increase in utility bill tar-iffs, levy unjustified taxes and rampantpoverty and hunger, the masses are com-mitting suicide in the country but the

rulers have failed to realise the gravity of the situa-tion and meet their expectations.The masses were expecting a positive change

after the downfall of General Musharraf and PPPbut the new government not only failed to give themany relief but also failed to devise a plan to lessentheir sufferings.The price hike and poverty have compelled peo-

ple to commit suicide but ironically the governmentwas not bothered to resolve the public issues and therulers were living a luxurious life.The masses severely criticised the government

for making a huge increase of Rs 12.090 per unitprice of electricity for 300 units and Rs 16.00 perunit more than 301 consumed and termed it an anti-people decision. Besides of this, the consumer alsopaid Electricity Duty Rs 138,41, General Sales Tax(GST) Rs 1582, Neelam Jehlum Charges 65.00,PTV Fees Rs 35 and Fuel Price Adjustment -28.31.It is domestic bill for the month of August 2014,commercial tariff is too much high than domestictariff. There were flat rates of electricity in 2013 for 100

units Rs 5.790, 200 units 8.110 and more than 300Rs 12.830. Duty Rs 69.45, General Sales Tax (GST)Rs 799, Neelam Jehlum Charges 49.70, PTV FeesRs 35.The business community also lamented the de-

cision of the government and said the hefty increasein power prices would also adversely affect compet-itiveness of Pakistani merchandise that had alreadylost their due place in a number of global marketsdue to their high prices.Pakistan has the high tariff compared to India,

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. With this massive andunprecedented increase, we will have double the tar-iff of electricity what the regional countries are of-fering to their trade and industries leaving Pakistantotally uncompetitive and unviable in the interna-tional market place. The country had already lost anumber of international markets to China,Bangladesh and India due to high cost of doingbusiness.It is pertaining to mention here that on June

2010, Nawaz Sharif strongly denounced the hike inpower tariff, demanded of the PPP government towithdraw the same.He said the people were already suffering from

crushing inflation and the anymore rise in electric-ity price would only add insult to the injury.

Terming unleashing of another genie of pricehike cruel and unjustified, Nawaz Sharif said thegovernment had completely failed in providing re-lief to the masses. What is about his government, itis big question mark?To add the more misery as the government have

issued million of inflated bills to the masses and peo-ple observed a strike and held a protest demonstra-tion against inflated electricity bills.The masses, political and social workers carried

placards, burnt tires and blocked road against in-flated bills and out of order transformers.The government has collected additional Rs15

billion from the electricity consumers, as the min-istry of water and power did not issue the notifica-tion for the power tariff that had been reduced byNepra three months back.Nepra provided relief to the consumers in April

2014 by reducing the power tariff by Rs0.24 to 1.67per unit, but ministry of water and power got an-noyed over the decision and did not issue the notifi-cation of the decision.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairmanImran Khan torched several electricity bills toprotest 80 percent hike in the power tariff in a yearand the governments failure to stem electricity theft.He told his supporters here at the PTI sit-in that

as a citizen of Pakistan, he had the right to ask whypower tariff was increased by 80 percent in one yearand why electricity theft was not checked and whythe masses should be made to pay for the govern-ments failures.

Imran described the fixing of tariff for coal-based electricity to be produced by power stationsas illegal and referred to the Transparency Interna-tionals latest report. He said the power tariff fixedwas Rs14 per unit while coal-based power was beingsupplied in India at the rate of Rs7-8 per unit whichwould cause Rs500 billion loss to the people of Pak-istan.Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund

(IMF) talks to conclude the fourth review on $6.67billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) have beenstalled, as the ongoing political standoff has put thecountry into a state of deep freeze, government of-ficials.They said the technical negotiations remained

smooth between the two sides held in Dubai fromAugust 6 to 18 but policy level talks could not beconcluded in the wake of apparent rising politicaltemperatures.

Now, the IMF has gone into the mode of waitand see policy and an outcome of the lingering po-litical turmoil will determine the future of the pro-gramme.The government will have to hike power tariff

in the range of four to six percent before presentingPakistans case before the IMFs executive board asthe fund staff has put tariff increase as prior action,a source said. n


COMMERCE | Mazharul Haq

It is pertaining to mention here thaton June 2010, Nawaz Sharifstrongly denounced the hike inpower tariff, demanded of the PPPgovernment to withdraw the same

The masses were expecting a positive change after the down-fall of General Musharraf and PPP but the new governmentnot only failed to give them any relief but also failed to devisea plan to lessen their sufferings

Electricity bills - deathwarrant to the masses

Benazir Income Support Programme which was started by the last governmentprovides financial assistance to low-in-come families through bi-monthly cash

payments. Now few fraudulent people are using thename of this Benazir Income Support Programmeto loot innocent people.Fraud people send a fake SMS to the people, in-

forming them that you have won a prize of Rs.25,500, Rs 30,000 and then they make fool througha very tricky way. If you receive any such SMS, im-mediately inform the police or FIA.Listen my words carefully, this is Rashid, Man-

age Benazir Income Scheme Programme, I am giv-ing the telephone number of Supervisor for furtherdetails. As you know, a survey of BISP conductedrecently in which mobile phone numbers registeredthe eligible of this scheme. We have registered Rs30000 in your phone number.You can receive this payment of any easypaisa

shops across the country. When you reach easy-paisa shop you will talk to our supervisor RanaNaveed, he dispatches two drafts of amounting Rs15000 each.It is remembered that you must not disclose the

name of Rana Naveed which belong to BISP. If youtell him he deducted the tax from your payment be-cause this payment release by government and theybound to deduct the tax if shopkeeper does notdeduct the tax than government cancelled the li-cence of the easypaisa shop. You must tell him that

Rana Naveed is my brother or friend and cousin.You dont pay any amount to the shopkeeper.When we conducted the Rana Naveed, he said firstyou load Rs 1500 than I will send the above men-tioned amount to you. It is proof that they are usingfraudulent tactics and befool the innocent people ofthe country.

Ahmad Ali received SMS in which mentionedthat Benazir income sport program ghr ghr sarwayka thet apko ,30000 mobarek ho. Apka numberBSIP mein register tha. Ap apana CNIC card orform lekr 03226711016 call kerin from:03038223643.Mazharul Haq received SMS, Benazir Income

support ki taraf se ghr ghr sarvey k that apka 30,000manzoor howa ha apka yea no. 03214325840 regis-ter he pls call me this No. 03006187429 from03407023006.Benazir Income Support ki taraf say ghr ghr sur-

vey kay teht ap ka 25000 manzoor ho gaya ap kayah number 03364581171 register hay pls call me

03033909441 from 0346-1633935.In another SMS, Benazir Income Support ki

taraf say ghr ghr survey kay teht ap ka 25000 man-zoor ho gaya ap ka yah number 03364581171 reg-ister hay pls call me 03460884894from023460884894. Imran, who was about to enter thelist of victims of the scam, that he had received anSMS from cell phone number O304-6180749, andwas asked to call on 0323-9756345. When I madethe call, some less-literate man with a poor Urduaccent said that he was Kashif from the BenazirIncome Support Programme. He gave me anothercell phone number 0301-6997044 and said it wasthe number of his supervisor named Naveed. Hetold me to let him talk to the person at the Easy-paisa shop. He asked the shopkeeper to get Rs2,000 transferred on the number. When the shop-keeper demanded Rs 2,000 for the transfer, I re-alised it was a fraud and disconnect the call.He said that Kashif had also strictly prohibited

him from telling the shopkeeper about the BISPgrant; otherwise the approved money would notbe sent. He had hold me that Easypaisa dealerswere not happy with the scheme because the fed-eral government was not giving them commissionon such transactions, he said.Another man named Asghar Jatt said that

some of his acquaintances had lost Rs 1,000 to Rs5,000 through the same fraud. He said that fraud-sters were deceiving the people very tactfully.When I called the given number, in response

Mohammad Shahzad said: You have enrolledthree years ago in the Benazir Income SupportProgramme and you have entitled for amount ofRs 25000. You should visit Islamabad to collectthe money or contact our senior supervisor AliRaza, phone No. 0333 1727417 when called himbut did not response.

This will create a loophole. People mightstart registering fake complaints against thosewho they dont like or want to make a target.He said that the company entertains such re-

quests if made by law enforcement agencies, sothe citizens should approach the police in suchcases.

It is pertaining to mention here that call toprize and received the SMS both different num-bers. The Benazir Income Support Programme

(BISP) is a non-conditional cash transfer pro-gramme instituted under former prime ministerYousaf Raza Gillani who presided the initialstages of the programme after taking the consul-tation advice from the current President Asif AliZardari. The programme provides financial assis-tance to low-income families through bi-monthlycash payments. n

Benazir Income Support ki tarafsay ghr ghr survey kay teht ap ka25000 manzoor ho gaya ap ka yahnumber 03364581171 register haypls call me 03033909441 from0346-1633935.

Fraud people send a fake SMS to the people, informing them that you have won a prize ofRs. 25,500, Rs 30,000 and then they make fool through a very tricky way. If you receive anysuch SMS, immediately inform the police or FIA.

Still non-stop BISP fake SMS towin BISP prize

Free download | FLARE.PK

Zohaib Fayyaz | TELEPEDIA

First case of cybercrime convicted inPakistan as Addi-tional Sessions

Judge Kaleem Arshad inPeshawar awarded six-year imprisonment and Rs2,00,000 fined to the ac-cused Noorul Haq wasfound guilty of charges.Federal InvestigativeAgency (FIA) arrestedhim on charges of sellingmobile SIMs after activat-ing those on Comput-erised National IdentityCard (CNIC) numbers ofdifferent unauthorizedpersons.

An FIA official viewedthat the decision of thecourt is a landmark inthe history of cyber crimesin the country, adding thatthe punishment is a warn-ing for other criminalswho are engaged in suchillegal act.

The Federal Investiga-tive Agency (FIA) had ar-rested accused NoorulHaq for selling SIM cardsby activating those ille-gally using fake Comput-erised National IdentityCard (CNIC) numbers.

The cellular compa-nies had been directed tostop activation of theSIMs on the old pattern that had many securityloopholes.

According to a notification issued by the Pak-istan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), SIMscould now be activated only after biometric verifi-cation. The buyer would provide thumb impres-sion on the biometric device for online verificationwith Nadra and then the SIM will be delivered tothe user.

In another successful bid, Federal InvestigationAgency (FIA), Cyber Crime Circle, Rawalpindi Re-gion have arrested four suspected fraudsters in overRs 200 million Internet jobs scam.

A gang of fraudsters allegedly collected overRs 200 million from people, who were offered fivedifferent online jobs packages on advertclickingwebsite.

Such scams are a form of advance fee fraudscamming, where certain unscrupulous persons pos-ing as running legal business offer attractive parttime, full time, online job opportunities, which re-quire the job seekers to pay them money in advance,usually under the guise of registration fee.

The scams typically involve lucrative offers ofemployment with money demanded to be paid to anagency or company for registration. These agentsoften present themselves with official-looking web-sites and documentation.

Deputy Director, FIA, Cyber Crime Circle,Shahzad Haider told news agency that online adsclicking work is totally illegal business and action inaccordance with the law is being taken against thosefound involved in it.

Investigation Officer, FIA, Inspector Gohar AliShah informed that the suspected fraudster namelyAmir Shahzad, the owner of Advertclicking hasbeen arrested along with his three associates fromBakra Mandi, Kamalabad area. A case has been reg-istered against him as he was found involved in ille-gal ads clicking business.

Gohar Shah further told that preliminary inves-tigation revealed that Amir, the main accused col-lected over Rs 200 million during one and half yearfrom over 6,000 members of advertclicking as peo-ple thought they were paying registration fee withinvestment amount to earn handsome amountthrough online part time jobs.

He said hundreds of citizens are filing claimsamounting to millions of rupees at FIA against asham company being run by a group of fraudsters.

The investigation officer said, Amir is in FIAcustody on four-day physical remand and further in-vestigation into the case is underway.

Earlier another fraudster identified as Atif, theowner of digitalclicking was arrested in same casefrom Ckakri Road area, he said.

The citizens should not invest their money in

such illegal businesses.They should remain vigi-lant to avoid becomingfraud victims, he said.

If they are doing reallylegal and can pay you thenwhy they are asking formoney for membership.They are depriving the cit-izens of their money by of-fering big cash for littlework by making peoplegreedy, he added.

Gohar said that FIAinitially received a com-plaint against Advertclick-ing. This complaint led toan investigation in thescam by FIA and askingvictims of this scam tosubmit their claims withFIA.

He said some othercompanies are also operat-ing in a similar manner todeceive the public.

Claims are being veri-fied from the availablerecord produced by the ac-cused - Amir.

A victim of Ad-vertclicking fraud namelyAsif said, data entry, adsposting job and clickingfraud is especially for Pak-istani users who are vic-tims of this fake and scamwork.

He said, nowadays, ad-vertisement banners 'with headline earn 10,000 to45,000 month by Ads posting, form filling and Ad-clicking are witnessed in streets and roads of the city.The fraudsters demand money in the name of mem-bership, training fee, registration fee or investment.

He urged the government to make strict laws toprevent such frauds.

A survey noted that over 50 offices have beenestablished mainly in populated areas of the cityand involved in illegal business amounting to overtwo billion rupees.

Sources in FIA further revealed that it is a largescale operation involving billions amid indicationsthat the money has also been transferred outsidePakistan.

According to the new system a mobile SIM canonly be obtained after providing a thumb impres-sion and after subsequent verification of credentialsby National Database and Registration Authority(NADRA). Installation of new system at around75,000 retail outlets across country would costabout Rs2.8 billion.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)on the directive of Ministry of Information andTechnology (MoIT) has introduced the biometricverification system to curb the sale of illegal SIMsand control the crimes in the country.

The draft of much-needed Cyber Crime Bill hasfinally been prepared and now it would be sent tothe federal cabinet for approval but elapsed of eightmonths when State Minister chaired a meeting toreview the final Draft of Prevention of E-CrimesBill 2014. n


INS IGHT | Salman Khan

Federal Investigation Agency(FIA), Cyber Crime Circle,Rawalpindi Region have arrestedfour suspected fraudsters in overRs 200 million Internet jobs scam

The decision of the court is a landmark in the history of cyber crimes in the country, addingthat the punishment is a warning for other criminals who are engaged in such illegal act

1st Cyber Crime guilty getsimprisonment and fine


Flare Report | EVENT

Mobilink has upgraded Jinnah WelfareSocietys (JWS) Vocational Center bysetting up a stitching and sewing fa-cility. The facility upgraded with 12

sewing machines was inaugurated by MobilinksCSR team in a ceremony in JWS, Talagang. TheSewing and Stitching Center will be utilized forregular classes of sewing skills to the women ofTalagang and surrounding areas. The 6-monthlong course is aimed at empowering women ben-eficiaries with skills that they can utilize in earn-ing a living for their family and to teach otherwomen.

Omar Manzur Head of Corporate Communi-cation, Mobilink commenting on the partnershipsaid: Mobilink has always led with its efforts toprovide assistance to marginalized strata of thesociety. The vocational center at Talagang is partof our corporate social responsibility drive to en-able women of underdeveloped areas to gain eco-nomic freedom and shows our determination infulfilling our promise of making a better every dayfor the communities we operate in.

Mobilink will also contribute in making theproject sustainable by providing JWS an opportu-nity to opt in as a supplier of stitched schoolbags.

This in line with Mobilinks project for schoolchildren started in 2010 where school bags arestitched from recycled material obtained from flexsheets from outdoor advertising. Mobilink has sofar provided more than 40,000 school bags toschool children nationwide.

Women members and beneficiaries termed re-vamping of the Vocational Center as a muchneeded contribution to the existing facilities atJWS. They will not only be able to acquire skillsthrough this facility but also contribute to the eco-nomic cycle by working on sewing projects in thecity of Talagang.

Pakistan is an energy deficient country andneeds a quantum jump in electricity genera-tions to avert the possibilities of loadshed-ding in future due to gap between demand

and supply of electricity. Pakistan has generatedaround 20,000 megawatts, out of which hydel has ashare of 37% and Thermal and others 63%. Sincethree decades, considerable share of electric power isbeing born by Tarbela and Mangla constructed underIBP. No major hydropower dam has been built aftercompletion of Tarbela in 1975. Pakistan is exploitingonly about 6464 megawatts out of total hydropowerpotential of 54343 megawatts. Although, many hy-dropower projects are at different stages of planning,design and construction yet there is a need to planand formulate the implementation priorities of thecheap hydropower. About 85% of oil and the alliedproducts are imported to meet the national require-ment. In the year 2007-08, the import bill had gone upto $1.25 billion. If cheap hydropower is not added tothe system, the tariff of electricity produced with im-ported fuel would become unaffordable.Diamer Basha Dam is one of the hydropower

projects ready for implementation to solve the waterstorage and energy crisis on long term basis. The 272m high RCC dam will be the highest RCC dam in theworld. The large chunk of 4500 megawatts installa-tion at Diamer Basha Dam will go a long way in re-ducing the demand-supply gap in the future years.The paper describes the planning and constructionfor hydel power in Pakistan and significance of Di-amer Basha Dam in future if the energy crisis is to beresolved on long term basis. Diamer Basha dam shallhave cascading effect on downstream projects.There are few hyder power projects as Tarbella

Dam 3, 478 megawatts, Ghazi Brotha Dam 1450megawatts, Mangla Dam 1, 000 megawatts, WarsakDam 240 megawatts, Chashma Dam 184 MW, Hy-dropower Projects of Pakistan, Diamer Bhasha Dam4500 MW, Munda Dam 740 MW, Bunji Dam 5400

MW and Dasu Dam 3800 MW.Minister for Finance, Senator Mohammad Ishaq

Dar said that government would construct Diamer-Basha Dam at any cost to cater to the country's en-ergy and water requirements.Addressing a joint press conference alongwith

President Asian Development Bank (ADB), Take-hiko Nakao, the minister said that Diamer-BashaDam project has great importance for the socio-eco-nomic development of the country.He said the project would enable to produce

cheap electricity and to build water reservoir to tacklefuture energy and water requirements of the country.In addition, it would also help irrigate a vast area andhelp prevent any possible flood threats in future, headded.

"We have discussed the project with Asian Devel-opment Bank (ADB) officials as the bank was wellaware about the importance of this mega project forour country's prosperity, which has the capacity tostore about 1.3 trillion cubic feet water."He said the World Bank is going to hold a Busi-

ness Opportunity Conference in Washington on Oc-tober 8 and Pakistan would discuss Diamer-BhashaDam project in this conference. The Minister, reply-ing to a question, said that there was no need to ob-tain a No Objection Certificate for the construction ofthe Dam.

The minister said the government has completed1st phase i.e. land acquisition process for the dam andvowed that the country would finance the dam's con-struction from its own resources if funds are not avail-able from ADB and the donor agencies.Pakistan, he said built Tarbala Dam which had

helped the country minimize flood damages besidesproducing cheap electricity for the country.Ishaq Dar said that ADB has also approved

Jamshoro coal power project to produce cheap elec-tricity from coal reserves adding ADB head has alsowitnessed the signing ceremony of construction of aroad connecting Punjab with Khyber Pakhtunkhwawhich would promote business activities as well asprovide traveling and transport facilities to the peopleof the area. He said that government has spent Rs. 35billion on the relief of internally displaced personsand was determined to provide assistance to the floodaffected in the country. "The government has receivedoffers from many friendly countries and internationalagencies for helping the flood affected people but "wewant to utilize their assistance only after thoroughscrutiny of the damage estimates by UN and otherdonors", he added. The minister said that disasterneed assessment (DNA) would be carried out by in-ternational agencies to ensure transparency and judi-cious utilization of funds. The minister further saidthat due to unconstitutional activities and protests byPakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan AwamiTehreek, about $ 2.4 billion inflows into have beendelayed. He said the sit-in by these two parties havenot only inflicted financial loss to the country but hasalso affected investors' confidence, hence resulting inless investments.The finance minister said that even if these protest

end today, it would take considerable time to restoreinvestors confidence and get foreign investment.Dar, however, was of the view that the visit of

ADB President was clear message that internationaldonors have confidence in Pakistan. n


COMMERCE | Flare Report

The minister said the governmenthas completed 1st phase i.e. landacquisition process for the damand vowed that the country wouldfinance the dam's constructionfrom its own resources if fundsare not available from ADB andthe donor agencies

Addressing a joint press conference along with President Asian Development Bank (ADB),Takehiko Nakao, the minister said that Diamer-Basha Dam project has great importance forthe socio-economic development of the country

Basha Dam mitigates energydeficient Pakistan

Despite the protests against four-day Aal-ishan Pakistan exhibition held at NewDelhi's Pragati Maidan receivedtremendous response. Lifestyle expo

'Aalishan Pakistan' saw both the exhibitors andshoppers in high spirits of the exhibition.The Aalishan Pakistan was inaugurated by

Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, whocalled for walking past the chequered history be-tween the two countries and making a new begin-ning. The sky is the limit if India and Pakistancome together, he added.Politics and diplomacy was put on the back

burner at New Delhi's Pragati Maidan where Pak-istani traders were doing brisk business during therecently concluded four-day Aalishan Pakistantrade exhibition.The trade exhibition witnessed huge footfalls,

with people from all over thronged the expo wherea wide array of garments, textiles, jewellery andother products were on display.The exhibition was quite successful with over

150 exhibitors displaying their products, a markedrise from the 90 that participated in 2012.The exhibition aimed at exploiting the market

of about 600 million customers.The leading Pakistani brands, high-end retail-

ers and reputed designers were taking countrysproducts in the exhibition. These brands include, Gul Ahmed, AlKaram,

Orient, ChenOne, Junaid Jamshed, Bonanza, Ba-reeze, Khaadi, Sana Safinaaz, Kayseria, ShariqueTextiles, Lala Textiles, Needle Impressions, RangJa, Faiza Samee, Deepak Perwani, WardhaSaleem, FNKAsia, Ahan, Farnaz Mustafa and

many others brands.The renowned companies from non-traditional

sectors such as marble and granite, handcrafts, gar-ments and accessories, jewellery were also partic-ipating in the event.Traders at the fair said that Indian women were

very excited about the products and even negoti-ating and bargaining in Hindi and Urdu. Onebuyer said: "I am a big fan of Pakistani fabric,which is quite superior and the food is good too.So coming to the fair was a great experience."On the first day of the trade fair, members of

the Hindu Sena, Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena and Ba-jrang Dal raised slogans and protested against theevent, demanding that the event be called off.However, they were soon cleared from the prem-ises and the show continued as per plans.

Quratulain, from Gul Ahmed, a reputed brandin women wear, said: "we are happy with the re-sponse but it is definitely less as compared to 2012.We have customers who are aware of the brandand have been coming to us for many years."A group of protestors holding saffron coloured

flags with symbols of Om staged protests at Aal-ishan Pakistan, a four-day event by around 300 ex-hibitors from across the border. The lifestyle

exposition started at Pragati Maidan in the capi-tal.The unidentified men shouted derogatory slo-

gans and even said murdabad outside the venue.However, they were soon taken away in a policebus. A few men also managed to get into thevenue, but no destruction was caused.There was no destruction. Police have been

deployed. Its all sorted. They didnt say who theyare, but theres nothing to worry. The security is inplace, a security official said.Shoppers from the capital were not bothered ei-

ther.I am here to buy some fashion and lifestyle

products. I reached before 11a.m. I am a graduatefrom the University of Delhi; so protests dontscare me. They are just mobs. Security is here andif the government of India has allowed AalishanPakistan so why should people have any prob-lem, asked Mridula a student.Just last week, Hindu groups protested the de-

cision to host Aalishan Pakistan. The protestscame after the second Made In Pakistan Expo inMumbai was recently cancelled at the last minuteby organisers.Aalishan Pakistan has been jointly organised

by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (FICCI) and Trade Develop-ment Authority of Pakistan to further build on theefforts of the governments of Pakistan and Indiato normalise trade relations between the two coun-tries."We have extremist elements in Pakistan too

but they dare don't to create ruckus in eventswhich guests from other countries are involved,"


COMMERCE | Flare Report

With buyers going gaga over theirproducts as the designers fromacross the border sold over 90percent of their stocks withinthree days

The leading Pakistani brands, high-end retailers and reputed designers were taking countrysproducts in the exhibition. These brands include, Gul Ahmed, AlKaram, Orient, ChenOne,Junaid Jamshed, Bonanza, Bareeze, Khaadi, Sana Safinaaz, Kayseria and many others brands

Despite protests AalishanPakistan fair a big hit in India


Flare Report | COMMERCE

said Qaisra Sheikh, president Women Chamber ofCommerce and Industries, Lahore Division.Even though the police managed to remove all

the protesters from Hall Number 14, the incidentleft some of the younger participants worried fortheir safety.Sana Brani, 20-year-old entrepreneur from

Karachi said: "I was entertaining the hall when Isaw some people yelling at us. I was scared as I amyet to encounter such people in my life.Amna Faris, Project Manager at ChenOne (a

leading accessories brand in Pakistan) said thatsuch protests would not deter her or many otherwomen who come all the way from Pakistan toshowcase their skills."The purpose of joint exhibitions is to improve

trade relations between the two countries. Thepeople on both sides should realise that this onlybenefits them," said Amna.A customer purchasing a kurta termed the

protests as a publicity stunt. "They don't representall of us. I think such incidents only create a badreputation for our country," she said requestinganonymity.With buyers going gaga over their products as

the designers from across the border sold over 90percent of their stocks within three days, Sher

Afgan, director general of Trade Development Au-thority of Pakistan (TDPA), said the demand wasendless. There were 260 stalls and about 80 to 90percent of stocks were sold. Sanam Chaudhri,chairperson of Fashion Pakistan Council (FPC),described the whole experience as fantastic.Ive sold about 80 percent of my stock despite

the fact that most of the people asked for dis-count, she said.India is a huge market, said designer Adnan

Pardesy. He received queries from boutique own-ers and wholesalers and is confident that thesecontacts and meetings will materialise into busi-ness.They love our cotton for sure and that is

something which is not happening locally forthem, he added.FPC member Huma Adnan, however, believes

the business of fashion is incomplete withouttrade.We want the two governments to start trade

between the countries. The way people felt for usand our collections was very heartening. My jew-ellery is all sold out and people wanted more.Coming to India is tough for us and we have

to face a lot of processes. Getting Indian visa fora Pakistani is tough. Government organisationsneed to get involved more: like TDAP has pro-vided us this platform, Wardha Saleem, CEO,FPC told news agency.

Such platforms help to build ties between de-signers and retailers in India for business, sheadded.Adnan would love to open a store in India,

but the rules have discouraged her.If I plan to open a store here, I will need an

Indian partner and I think the share is around 66percent and 33 percent. I wouldnt get into some-thing like that because 33 percent is hardly ashare, said Adnan.

Deepak Perwani, a member of FPC, gavethumbs up to cross cultural exchange, butadded: Its about time India got to know whatPakistan fashion is all about and vice versa. Pol-itics will be politics, but that shouldnt change

what people think of each other.FPC has 55 designers as its members and they

want to showcase more in India, but need sup-port.We do plan to showcase in India or do a col-

laborative Pakistan-India fashion week. It hasstarted. Sania Maskatiya was one of the Pak-istani designers who showcased at the LakmeFashion Week in August, said Saleem.So far Lala Textiles of Lahore has partici-

pated in around 8 to 10 exhibitions in India.Apart from Delhi, we have travelled to cities

like Bangalore and Hyderabad. Delhi is good forbusiness as women in the capital or the northernregion of the country wears such suits.We would like to open stores and reach out

to more people in India, but the government willhave to help. Peace is the only solution for busi-ness to prosper, said Pervez Lala, CEO, LalaTextiles.Despite many barriers, the designers have pa-

trons in India. For instance, Gul Ahmed loves todo business here as women love both unstitchedand stitched Pakistan suits.Indian women love our collections. We have

been part of exhibitions in the past also, and theresponse was very good. Thats why we are here

again, said the sales manager of Gul Ahmed.Indu Goyal said she spent around Rs.20,000

only on suits from Gul Ahmed as the work isreally good.Sonal Budania admitted that she spent

around Rs.70,000 in just a day as she wanted toget her hands on Pakistani suits.Even teenagers were appreciating the designs

and fabrics from Pakistan. Their work was sub-tle and the long length of kurta was interesting,said 18-year-old Khushbakht.With a trade potential of billions of dollars

between the two countries, the event will notonly offer a unique opportunity to trade com-munity of India to interact with Pakistani coun-terparts but also a first-hand opportunity forcustomers to feel and own the best quality prod-ucts Pakistan has to offer.Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul

Basit said, "Our countries have many facets. Thefacet of economic relations constitutes an im-portant aspect of our relations because such ac-tivities not only create win-win situation but alsobring our people together. India is importantneighbour." n

Many peopleon Twitterand Face-book hailed

the event as a rare exam-ple of common peoplestanding up to the power-ful. Social Media hasbeen the most powerfultool because it gives aword-of-mouth advan-tage. A series of videosposted online show twohigh-profile politiciansbeing forced off a planeby a mob of angry pas-sengers after the planestakeoff was delayed formore than two hourswhile the flight crewwaited for the two VIPsto arrive. "What a delight to

watch the video. At lastsomeone stood up andeveryone joined. salutesto all those who raisedthere voice #NotoVip-Culture" tweeted userFrasat Mahmood. Otherscriticised the abusive lan-guage and threats of vio-lence.The PIA management

tried to calm down thepassengers as said that thedelay had been conveyedto passengers via SMS.Some passengers whohad given the contact de-

tails of their travel agent may not have been con-veyed the message by their agents.Two Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) em-

ployees were suspended after videos of former in-terior minister Rehman Malik and a PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker beingoffloaded by fuming passengers went viral on so-cial media.In the videos recorded via mobile phones, the

lawmakers appeared to be the reason of delay forthe Islamabad-bound flight PK-370. PIA shiftmanager Nadeem and terminal manager Shehzadwere suspendedAccording to detail, angry Pakistani airline

passengers have forced two lawmakers off a planefor delaying its departure by almost two hours,sparking a passionate debate about the country'sso-called 'VIP culture' after footage was posted on-line.The September 15 last, Pakistan International

Airlines (PIA) flight from Karachi to the capitalIslamabad was delayed by a technical fault for 90minutes, and by a further 25 minutes as it waitedfor two politicians including the former interiorminister to arrive, a government official said.Top brass government figures enjoy a host of

lavish privileges, from plots of land to heavy po-lice escorts that disrupt traffic. They are often ableto keep flights that are ready to depart waiting on

the tarmac for their arrival.But irate passengers on the PIA plane decided

to take matters into their own hands this time --aiming a string of invective toward RameshKumar Vankwani, a minority Hindu member ofthe ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Nawaz (PML-N) party, and later at the Pakistan Peoples Partymember and former interior minister RehmanMalik. 62 years old Rehman Malik is one of theleading politician in Pakistan born on 12 Decem-ber 1951 Sialkot. He has two citizenships of Pak-istan and British. He did his MSc in Statistics andBSc from Karachi University. He also got honoredPhD by Karachi University due his services forcountry as a minister.

In one of the videos (http://goo.gl/Y7tVqX),apparently shot on mobile phone, the passengerscan be seen waiting at the door of the plane forRehman Malik.As he walks down the jetway, a man shouts:

"Malik saheb (Sir) you should go back. You should

apologise to these passen-gers. You should beashamed of yourself !"250 passengers havebeen put out because ofyou."Another man can be

heard saying: "We'vetaken it for 68 years. Arewe going to take it an-other 68?" referring to thecountry's age.The embarrassed

politician later turnedback. Vankwani left theflight after passengersthreatened to beat himwith shoes.Malik, however, said

on Twitter he had notbeen late and blamed theother politician. "Whyam I being linked withPMLN minister, I sawthe noise with the minis-ter and decided not to goon the flight," he said.The PIA through their

official spokesperson is-sued a press statementthat the delay was notcaused because ofRehman Malik but it wasdue to a technical fault.Hence, all the propa-ganda against SenatorMalik was malafide andwithout any foundationwhatsoever.According to the Civil

Aviation Rules, videos cannot be made at airportvicinity and especially at plane and no one has theright to record anyones video without permission.About Vakwani, the spokesperson said it was

an unfortunate incident where an honourableMNA was humiliated and door was reopened andhe was pushed out of the plane by the fellow pas-sengers. Moreover, this was an act amounting toendangering the safety of the passengers on boardand also an act of violation within the meaning ofIATA Rules.It is, therefore, demanded that the PIA should

tender an apology to all the passengers for unduediscomfort caused due to the technical delay (ashas become the norm with the airline) and to Sen-ator A Rehman Malik for failing to present correctfacts timely, causing the delay being wrongfully at-tributed to him, the spokesperson said in the state-ment.Further, the airlines security/staff failed to stop

the takeover of the plane by the violators againstthe IATA Rules and laws of the land and com-pletely mismanaged the entire situation.The spokesperson said Senator Malik reserves

the right to sue all the persons/violators involvedin this vilification campaign. He was attributed toa delay of two hours, widely reported in themedia, which was not his fault as admitted by theairlines itself subsequently. n


INS IGHT | Flare Report

In one of the videos(http://goo.gl/Y7tVqX), apparentlyshot on mobile phone, the passen-gers can be seen waiting at the doorof the plane for Rehman Malik

A series of videos posted online show two high-profile politicians being forced off a planeby a mob of angry passengers after the planes takeoff was delayed for more than two hourswhile the flight crew waited for the two VIPs to arrive

Videos posted online beingforced VIPs off a plane


EVENT | Flare Report

Ufone extended its timely support in theform of life jackets which were beingprovided to Pakistan Navy at NavyFlood Camp, Sukkur for emergency re-

sponse, as flood warning centers reported the on-slaught of the deluge in a day, which was expectedto cause major damages. The life jackets helped inrescue efforts whereby saving precious lives.

Ufones services were not only limited to itscustomers, in fact to all Pakistanis, which are ex-tended specially in the hour of need such asdroughts, floods, earthquakes or other naturalcalamities. It is evident from the operators pastCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives

specially the earthquake, 2010 flood relief efforts,2014 Tharparkar drought and now the floods thathave devastated Punjab and continue to wreakhavoc throughout the rest of the country.

It is pertaining to mention here that the Ufonereceived many CSR awards national and interna-tional. Ufone was top to execute the best practices

of CRS model and received the award of best prac-ticing CSR company by United Nations GlobalCompact Pakistan (UNGCP). Ufone is the onlytelecom receiver of this prominent award.

Ufone, one of the leading telecom companiesin the country, has been at the forefront of manysocial initiatives which have been taken to benefitthe populace. Since inception Ufone has been asocially responsible organization, and over thelast few years, has carried out various CSR proj-ects related to child health care, mentor and coun-seling programs for school going children and onhighlighting the need for a green and healthy en-vironment. n

Since inception, Ufone has been asocially responsible organization,and over the last few years, hascarried out various CSR projects

It is evident from the operators past Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives spe-cially the earthquake, 2010 flood relief efforts, 2014 Tharparkar drought and now the floodsthat have devastated Punjab and continue to wreak havoc in more areas

Ufone provides life jackets to PNfor flood rescue efforts


Flare Report | T E L E P E D I A


COVER STORY | Zubair Kasuri


The fire engulfed top three floorsof a multi-storey building of Pak-istan Telecommunication Com-pany Limited (PTCL) regional

office at Egerton Road. The fire erupted onSunday, September 27 around 12.00 pmwhen 13 members of staff were presentthere on duty. After one hour around 1.00pm, they took notice of the fire erupted inthe upper floor than they called rescue andfire-brigadiers for rescue operations.

PTCL office fire have pushed the coun-try many years back and this is the telecomterrorism and conspiracy against the devel-oping and fast growing sector. This is largestPTCL telephone exchange where maximumtraffic passed and it covers almost 40 to 60per cent connectivity of landline and broad-band of the country.

The sources revealed that the some ele-ments inside the PTCL is against the pres-ent structure of the PTCL management andthey want damage their reputation. The fireof PTCL office can be part of this conspir-acy.

The management of PTCL should con-duct department inquiry of this incidentand will give strict punish those involve inthis incident.

Fire safety system installed every de-partment of the government offices foremergency. It is the question mark why thepresent staff of PTCL tried to extinguishthe fire and dialed the phone one hour afterengulfed fire to the PTCL office.

Sources of the Ufone have said the com-pany faced Rs 50 million lost per day due tosuspension the service of Ufone. Ufoneservice suspened in main cities like Hafiz-abad, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sheikhpura, La-hore and Kasur. Telenor and Mobilink havealso losses million of rupees.

As per agreement, PTCL will compen-sate the companies which suffered a lot.

Fire fighters extinguished the flames af-ter more than three hours of hectic effortswhich burnt PTCL computers and otherequipments installed in the building. Thefire again broke out after some times andthe fire brigades were again rushed to control it.

The telephone and internet services in various

areas have been suspended. According to PTCLsources, 45,000 telephone and 25,000 internet

lines have been damaged and thousandsof cell sites of mobile phones remainedsuspended for three years without anynotice. They said it would take about fourdays to restore the system. It is regrettedthat the mobile phone companies did notadvertisements through national printmedia about the system suspension dueto fire of PTCL office.

These connections also include of theGovernor and Chief Minister Houses,Punjab Assembly, State Guest House,government departments, help lines,banks, ATM machines and NGOs.

On May 2013, more than 22 personswere killed and several others sustainedburns, while invaluable real estate recordswere burnt to ashes, when a horrific firebroke out at LDA Plaza on EgertonRoad. It is the second fire incident hap-pened at Egerton Road, Lahore. Therecord of all recruitment, current and old,was also burnt to ashes along with all in-quiries and pending penalties against em-ployees found guilty of various irregular-ities.

The worst of cellular operator wereUfone, Telenor and Mobilink which al-most all customers of Lahore had com-plaints that their networks were not work-ing. Brain Tel, wi-tribe and otheroperators also affected its telephonic serv-ices.

Ufone system was severely damageand routers of mobile phone companiesburned. PTCLs Telephone ExchangeEgerton Road is located at very importantplace of Lahore.

It is pertaining mention here not anygovernment and officials have con-demned the PTCL fire erupted incident.It is prime responsibility of the govern-ment to conduct the inquiry such impor-tant fire eruption cases and prepare strat-egy to avoid incidents in future. DistrictCoordinator Officer (DCO) report willnot have final report regarding any inci-dent, provincial governments shouldcheck and verified the incidents which

happened quickly.Five floors of the building have been damaged

Zubair Kasuri | COVER STORY

and machinery worth billion of rupees burnt.However, no casualty was reported in the inci-dent. A fire of this nature and magnitude apartfrom causing a tremendous financial loss also af-fect the lives of the people.

Though it wasnt a deliberate incident but stillit should be inquired properly and thoroughly sothat these kind of incidents can be avoided in fu-ture. Moreover, there should be some backup planso that if any untoward incident occurs then cus-tomers dont suffer much. Speculations and con-spiracy theorists have already started raisingdoubts of this incident that some elements behindto sabotage the country.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB)had taken notice of reports regarding burning ofprecious record, including that of revenue in theLDA Plaza fire incident in Lahore but did not re-port publicly.

In 2011, a cellular network for Pakistanslargest mobile company, Mobilink, was affectedafter an exchange in Islamabad caught fire, re-sulting in downtime of services for almost a day.The companys public relations department con-firmed the incident took place at one of the tech-nical hubs in Islamabad. Power was turned off atthe terminal, which caused suspension of servicesin Islamabad, Rawalpindi and parts of the north-ern region.

In 2012, a fire broke out outside a commercialbuilding in Blue Area, which also hosted Warid'sIslamabad office. Reportedly, rescue officials andfire brigades had reached the area and were tryingto cover up the fire in damaged building.

Valuable record and articles related to May2013 general elections of the Election Commis-sion of Pakistan (ECP) was allegedly burnt in amysterious fire that erupted in the basement ofGovernment Central Model School, RattigonRoad, Lahore.

The ECP authorities have not confirmed thereason behind eruption of fire or shown concernof any conspiracy behind the incident and suchconfusion has raised questions about institutionalimpartiality, especially when some oppositionparties are levelling allegations of rigging in thelast general elections and are demanding the gov-ernment resign and call fresh elections.

The ECP was using the school basement forkeeping its records and articles since last one anda half years. On Monday, the fire suddenlyerupted in the basement when classes were on,creating panic among pupils as well as teachers.

The school administration immediately gotthe premises evacuated after announcing closure.

The school administration also claimed that theyhad asked the ECP to shift its material and vacatetheir basement on a number of occasions but tono avail.

On the other hand, the ECP has issued a pressnote in which it has clarified that only some arti-cles related to conduct of elections like ink, bal-lot boxes and stamps were stored in the schoolbasement and that no record pertaining to thelast general elections was placed there. It further

stated that any material pertaining to the 2013general elections was not affected in the fire inci-dent, as material only pertaining to upcoming by-elections and local government elections wasstored there.

Meanwhile, Punjab Assembly OppositionLeader Mian Mahmoodur Rashid has accusedthe Punjab government of deliberately de-stroying the material to conceal their rigging in

the May 2013 general elections. It is also pertinentto mention here that ECP authorities were of theview that the fire erupted because of short-cir-cuiting in the school basement but chances ofany conspiracy were also not out of question. Nofirst information report has been lodged by theECP till the filing of this report.

Three hundred and twenty-five people wereconfirmed dead in two separate infernos in justunder 24 hours, in the largest and second-largestcities of Pakistan. This is not the final death toll,as more bodies might be discovered. Parallels canbe drawn to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire thathappened over a century ago. While safety stan-dards have greatly improved in the Western world,most of those died in Pakistan were working in asweatshop, presumably making wares for the richWestern clientele.

The cruel dance of death began in Lahore, thesecond-largest city of Pakistan, where a fire eruptedin an illegal shoe-sole-making factory. The pro-duction unit was located in a densely populatedarea, though the neighbors somehow managed tostay safe. The fire consumed the lives of 26 people-- men, women, and children.

For years developed and developing countrieshave been employing firefighting strategies and pre-ventative measures in the construction of theirhomes and commercial buildings, yet somehowthese things are overlooked in Pakistan and have ledto adverse consequences. There were many multi-storey buildings located in the narrow bazaars, inthe downtown, which would result in a disasterif the concerned department does not check it.

As per Fire Prevention and Life Safety (FPLS)regulation 2010, number of safety measures wererequired in high-rise buildings, including fire ex-tinguishers, dedicated water tanks at basementsand roofs, floor plan, exit plan, centralized mikesystem, fire party at every floor, disconnectionsystem of electricity and gas.

Mostly government institutions were reluc-tant to implement the safety recommendations.New safety regulations-2010, every building inwas bound to improve the standard of safetymeasures to save lives. Unfortunately no buildingwas meeting the safety standards according to thenew law. n


COVER STORY | Zubair Kasuri

The sources revealed that someelements inside the PTCL isagainst the present structure ofthe PTCL management and theywant damage their reputation.The fire of PTCL office can bepart of this conspiracy

On the directive of Pakistan Telecommu-nications Authority (PTA), all CellularMobile Operators (CMOs) sent freeSMS flood alerts to the public in the

flood affected districts of Punjab.In the wake of heavy floods in the various dis-

tricts of Punjab, the Federal as well as the PunjabGovernment approached PTA to run SMS broad-cast messages for the timely awareness of residentsin the flood-hit areas. PTA directed all mobile op-erators to carried out SMS based campaign to en-able the people of affected areas to timely vacatetheir places and take refuge at safe locations.

National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) provided relevant information for theSMSs to mobile operators keeping in view thechanging situation of each and every flood-tornarea. The area-specific SMS helped public in get-ting accurate and in time information and warn-ings about the flood in the area of their residence.

The Punjab government has started an SMScell and broadcast service to send location-specificflood alerts to affected citizens.

Messages about flood warnings were sent indistricts of Sialkot, Narowal, Sheikhupura, Gu-jranwala, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin,Chiniot, Faisalabad, Jhang, Jehlum, Multan,Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur, Khanewal.

The country has suffered a loss of about Rs200billion in the agricultural and livestock sectors. Thefloods have destroyed crops of cotton, rice, sugar-cane and tobacco.

Over 100,000 cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep,horses, camels and donkeys have been lost and3,000 fish farms and 2,000 poultry farms destroyedacross the country.

In Punjab alone, a cotton growing area of aboutone million acres had been affected and cropsworth Rs80 billion destroyed.

The floods have forced displacement of 30,000people, 300 were killed and 1,800 injured, whereas40,000 houses have been fully damaged, 12,000partially damaged besides damage to 500 shops.The torrential rains also caused damage to 12bridges and water supply schemes, electricitytransmission lines and nine power projects.

Economic targets set for the current financialyear 2014-15 are likely to be reviewed in the wakeof massive destruction caused by floodwater inthe country.

A senior officer of finance ministry said dev-astation wreaked by floodwater has taken heavytoll on agriculture sector. Acute shortage of agri-culture output is being feared. The industrial andbusiness activities are likely to be affected ad-versely.

Sources said the damages emanated from theflood will be assessed after overcoming the postflood situation. Later it will be decided if the eco-nomic benchmarks set for the current fiscal haveto be reviewed or otherwise.

Finance ministry sources said GDP growthrate, fiscal deficit, tax revenue and other eco-nomic targets will have to be curtailed becausethe situation arising out of dharnas staged by PTIand PAT has delivered set back to the tune of Rs1000 billion to the national economy and now thefloods have aggravated the situation.

A meeting in this regard is likely to be heldnext month to gauge the estimate of loss causedby flood water.

Pakistan Army said helicopters and boatswere used to rescued the people from flood hitareas of Chiniot, Koty Momin, Phalia, Hafiz-abad, Khani, Qadirabad, Bajwat, Chaprar,

Wazirabad and Mandi Bahauddin areas.Troops were carrying out rescue operation in

Multan, DG Khan, Liyyah, Sahiwal and otherareas as relief camps have been set up in variousareas.

Food packs were dropped by army helicoptersfor people trapped in floodwater at various placesin Chiniot, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Mandiba-hauddin since start of the relief operation, ISPRsaid.

On the other hand, the floods in Jammu andKashmir have caused immense devastation withover 150 people dead and many more believed to

be stranded. Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi has called the situation a 'national disaster'.

The floods have sparked a huge social mediaresponse around information-sharing. On Face-book, a group called Kashmir Flood InformationChannel has people putting out the latest infor-mation on the floods, and also giving out detailsabout the rescue operations.

One of the latest posts point out that the statemachinery has completely failed in rescuing peo-ple and rather it is the local people who are com-ing together to help those who are stranded, bothtourists and residents.

Another post asks that people should notspread rumours, another mentions how one fam-ily is stuck in a particular colony in Srinagar andgives out the mobile number of the family to berescued.

People have also been posting on Facebookabout the website called JKFloodRelief.orgwhich lists out details of the kinds of medicinesupplies, donations, etc that are needed in Kash-mir. The Donate here page has a list of people invarious cities, who are ready to collect the sup-plies that are needed. Volunteers have been post-ing on Facebook as well highlighting thatdonations can be passed on to them. n

PTA directed all mobile operatorsto carried out SMS based campaignto enable the people of affected ar-eas to timely vacate their places andtake refugee at safe locations

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) pro-vided relevant information for the SMS to mobile operatorskeeping in view the changing situation of each and every flood-area. The area-specific SMS helped public in getting accurateand in time information and warnings about the flood

SMS - a potential life-saver in flood-proneparts of Pakistan


Flare Report | TELEPEDIA


EVENT | Flare Report

Changhong Ruba has recently stormed themarket with their state-of-the-art productsranging from LEDs, air conditioners,water dispensers and refrigerators and

more products coming in the future. Changhong was established in 1958, since then it

has developed as the largest TV production base inChina, known as the king of color TV in China andone of the most famous home appliance brand withover 56 years of development. Changhong has beenshaped as a comprehensive multinational corpora-tion integrated with R&D, production, sales andservices for TV sets, air conditioners, refrigerators,IT communication network, digital products, chips,energy , commercial electronics, electronic productshome appliances and new flat panel display devicesetc. Changhong is a large scale consumer electronicsenterprise integrated with R&D, production of flatpanel TV (LED, PDP AND OLED) with annual flat

TV production capacity of 20 million sets. In 2013Changhong brand value hit USD 13.6 billion andmore than 90,000 staff worldwide. It has been fore-casted that by 2015 Changhong revenue will hit$23.62 billion.Ruba Group Established in 1971, since then it

has grown to become a leader in the electronics in-

dustry by investing in the latest technology, settingup state of the art local manufacturing base and pro-viding innovative products to the Pakistani market.Ruba Group serves in diversified industries such aselectronics, textile and construction. The group hasoperations based outside Pakistan in the MiddleEast, Far East and Africa. Ruba Group is committedtowards providing quality products and services toimprove the living standards of Pakistani consumersthus becoming No. 1 Group in Pakistan.

Ruba Group has collaborated with ChanghongGroup to establish new innovative brand Chang-hong Ruba for the Pakistani market.Recently, in 2014 Changhong Ruba launched the

first curved TV (3DUD65C8000i) in Pakistan. It isthe first Chinese brand to promote the curved UHDLED TV in Pakistan. The 65 and 55 curved LEDTV is equipped with UHD TV technology, and itscurvature fully completely meets ergonomic re-quirements. It provides better picture quality, higherdefinition and brings best consistent viewing edge toedge with narrow and thin structure, lengthens thewatching distance and brings astonished visual en-joyment to the customers. Curved LED providessame audio and video at any angle. Curved TVs arethe next phase in the evolution of the home viewingexperience, offering "a deeper sense of depth, widerviewing angles and a clearer picture quality with

higher contrast levels creating a more immersiveviewing experience from virtually any viewing posi-tion or angle." Changhong curved TV - 3D55C8000ibelongs to the flagship product C8000 series. Thisproduct not only has the latest global technologyLED screen, but also has a dual-core ARM9CPUplus dual-core Mali400GPU chip platform. LEDglass is very thin, only 0.5-0.7 mm. They opened Ultra high definition era 8.29 mil-

lion wonders with zero practical picture qualitymakes it perfect to watch TV. Changhong Rubasphysical resolution of the Ultra High Definition TVscreen is 3840 X 2160 (4K x 2K) with chip decodingthe UHD 4K x 2K program source, and clarifiesover 4 times of full HD 1080P TV. It includes a fullweb browser. The TVs come with UHD up scaling,which converts full-HD, HD and lower resolutionsources to nearly-UHD clarity through a four-stepprocess that includes signal analysis, noise reduc-

tion, up scaling and detail analysis. Further on thefeatures include Android 4.2, C-Store, gesture con-trol for games, built in Wi-Fi, richer and clearersound system, multiscreen interaction with a superstylish design and a bow type metal stand. Com-pared to other products, Changhong Ruba curvedTV has higher resolution and is more suitable for

It is the first Chinese brand to pro-mote the curved UHD LED TVin Pakistan. The 65 and 55curved LED TV is equipped withUHD TV technology, and its cur-vature fully completely meets er-gonomic requirements

watching movies. 3DUD65C8000i intelligent oper-ating system is a completely independent researchdeveloped by Changhong with an innovative virtualmachine technology, it is fully compatible with in-ternational mainstream operating system (such asAndroid 4.2, Voice control, video call, mobilephone, touch remote, air board and mouse ) and isone of the smart home solution.It has been developed with amazing 3D, full web

browser, C-Store and Body sense gaming (bodysense games are new electronic games that can beoperated by body movements, breaking the previous

press mode of operation by simply pressing buttons,so that people can achieve a healthy life even whilestay in at home. Changchun Rube curved UHD TVis a perfect combination of art & technologyOn the 25th of September, 2014 a launching cer-

emony took place in Lahore for the launch of all-new curved UHD TV in Pakistan. At the ceremony, Changchun Rubes key per-

sonnel were seen along with the companys impor-tant figures from Pakistan and China.David Hub (CEO) of the company spoke about

the success achieved throughout this establishment

period and shared a promising vision of progressingand expanding. Manor Khan, Director Rube Group, has said

with investments from foreign partners, a huge de-velopment in the technological sector is foreseen.Changchun and Rube look forward to strengthen thebond with collectively flourishing the market and allsectors of growth respectively.Babar Chemo (Marketing Department Manager)

has presented the introduction of product and high-lights the key features of curved UHD TV and itstechnology during the event. n


Flare Report | EVENT

The internet isgaining popu-larity as amedium for

selling sacrificial ani-mals this year followingthe successes of a hand-ful of online brokersduring the previous Eid-ul-Azha.

The online shoppingportals offer a wide va-riety of cows, goats,sheep and camels.Without visiting acrowded market, thebuyers are able tochoose cattle from thecomfort of their homesand communicate withseveral traders beforemaking their final pur-chase.

The e-commercesites are mainly target-ing those who want todistribute the meat oftheir sacrificial animalsamong the poor of theirvillages but live abroador in the cities.

OLX Pakistan alsooffered online localclassified ads for ani-mals on Eidul Azha.

The government hadbanned to selling of sac-rificial animals withinmajor cities and set upthe market outside theurban areas. Due tothis, majority of prefer

on online buying of animals ahead of Eid-ul-Adha eliminating the hassle of physically visitingthe marketplace and tension of haggling overprices. On the other hand, the traditional sacrifi-cial animal dealers are desperately waiting for themiddle class customers in the makeshift marketsas the influx of new trends and extra ordinaryhigh rates of sacrificial animals disappointed thepotential customers.

The Muslims celebrate Eidul Azha with tradi-tional zeal and enthusiasm. Eid-ul-Azha, alsoknown as Festival of Sacrifice or Greater Eidis an important religious day celebrated by Mus-lims across the world to commemorate willing-ness of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) to sacrifice his sonHazrat Ismail (AS) as an act of obedience toAllah Almighty, before He (Allah) intervened toprovide him with a ram to sacrifice instead.

With advancements in technology and in-crease in buying power, most of the city dwellersare looking for ways to cut the steps betweenorder and delivery. People are relying on phoneand internet to place orders and receive goods,eliminating the hassle of physically visiting themarketplace. One can get Bakra Online throughSMS, Wap or via Web. The trend has become verypopular recently. No matter where you are, an an-imal of your choice is delivered to you on time.

The Online Bakra Buying Service caters tothe need of consumers by providing photographs,videos, voices and other descriptions including

breeds and prices of goats and other sacrificial an-imals.

Eidul Azha is festivity besides of this, the chil-dren liked the animals and they desired to buy theanimals as much as healthy, and fast but in thepresent scenario, the prices of normal goat be-tween 40,000 to 100,000 and cows and camels1,00,000 to 1 million how it possible to buy mid-dle or lower middle class people. It is feared thecrises of sacrificial animals is deepen in the up-

coming year. The people bought the sacrificial an-imals from the selected markets as per their rangebut in the present times, common man did not ef-fort qurbani due to high prices of sacrificial ani-mals.

These websites claim that browsing for ani-mals on the internet is better than personallygoing to a cattle market to select a sacrificial ani-mal. These said that people would browse for an-

imals by their picturesand rates and couldplace orders.

These websites ac-cept credit cards andother modes of paymentthrough internet and saythat the selected animalwill be delivered at thedoorstep of the pur-chaser the next day.

Eidul Azha ismarked with the ritualof sacrifice and millionsof Muslims across theglobe make sacrifices ofcows, goats, sheep andcamels to remember thesacrifice of ProphetIbrahim (AS) as well asto celebrate the end ofHajj.

While making sacri-fice is not an issue inMuslim countries, it isreally a task for Muslimsliving in the westernworld. People usuallysend funds to their rela-tives and friends in Mus-lim countries to makesacrifice on their behalfor give money to chari-ties for the purpose. Butnow they have got con-trol on their sacrifices,thanks to the internet.

Online Bakra-buyingservice that providedphoto, video, voice andother descriptions in-cluding types and prices

of the goats and other sacrificial animals on theinternet which assists customers to make theirchoice.

Different chains of big stores as well as indi-viduals manage these websites. These claim thatbuying a sacrificial animal on the Internet washassle free and without any bargaining because ofcompetitive prices. They said this also saved timeof the people.

Most of the websites are having advertise-ments from different religious parties for donationof the sacrificial animals skins while many are of-fering to perform Qurbani and delivery the meatto their customers at their homes.

They are also offering Qurbani to expatriatePakistanis and one of their packages is that theywill sacrifice an animal here in Pakistan, distrib-ute its meat among the poor and send pictures oflive and sacrificed animal to the customersabroad.

Likewise, some websites are also offering theexpatriates the option of viewing the sacrifice ontheir website. These websites said they will dedi-cate an IP address and people could watch thesacrifice no matter which country they were in.

The idea of purchasing sacrificial animalsthrough Internet was introduced in the countrysome four or five years back. People said thatcompanies and individuals were selling all kindof stuff on Internet then why not sacrificial ani-mals and termed this idea brilliant. n


INS IGHT | Azhar Javed

The government had banned sell-ing of sacrificial animals withinmajor cities and set up the marketoutside the urban areas. Due tothis, majority of prefer on onlinebuying of animals ahead of Eid-ul-Adha

The Online Bakra buying service caters to the need of consumers by providing photographs,videos, voices and other descriptions including breeds and prices of goats and other sacrificial animals

Online animals trade boomingin Pakistan

In wireless world, mobility means an instant ac-cess to information anytime anywhere. Inhealthcare thats not just convenient but criti-cal. By leveraging the latest consumer driven

devices and technologies, we are now working to de-liver an innovative secure mobile solution for healthcare professionals. The Clinical Mobility Solutionbrings together and aggregate information from clin-ical system in a single simple to use interface. Itequips clinician with a digital tool to diagnose, pre-scribe document patient information throughout theclinical life cycle. Through mobile practice func-tionality, physician can review their schedule/ap-pointments. Work list, patients charts,communication and all the clinical data at patientsbedside. These capabilities would reduce streamlineprocesses, medication errors and connect the entirecontinuum of care. This will enable hospitals to de-liver the eminent quality and services to patients.Around the globe many clinicians and hospital in-dustries have embrace this technology that is specif-ically design for touch pad environment as there aremany ways that this wireless technology can help inincreasing the value of patient care. Mobility has al-lowed doctors to be presented with any patient inany hospital via video conferencing and allows themto view real time patient information instantly. Asmobility escalated the efficiency of hospital staff, pa-tient care becomes more emphasized by increasingquality and standards. When physician can reviewrecords easily, they can diagnose and treat patientsmore effectively. Clinicians have instant access to labresults soon they are ready through easy access ofvast health databases from their tablets, smartphonesor any other mobile devices. This technology con-solidates information from many sources within thehospital and beyond. Ultimately, patient outcomesimprove. For health care Clinical Mobility Technol-ogy is commended by a host of IT solutions andmobile devices that enable patient care delivery toanexceptional level of excellence. As Pakistan is at amuch earlier stage in the stream, the one of themajor obstacles facing health IT in Pakistan is in-ad-equateness of this realization that information sys-tems form the backbone of any good policy andplanning methodology, which eventuallylead to bet-ter outcomes. An absence of national and regionalinterest in Health IT policy has led to a plethora offragmented health information tools and systemswhich has potential of long term sustainability orinteroperability. We are working to disperse the im-portance of mobility in health care and we will con-

tinue to work in partnership with vendors that canendow our health industries with direction and ex-pertise while selecting the appropriate componentsand mobile devices. So those who need cares, canget the better care as possible.

The rapid integration of mobile devices into clin-ical practice has, in part, been driven by the risingavailability and quality of medical software appli-cations, or apps. Apps are software programs thathave been developed to run on a computer or mobiledevice to accomplish a specific purpose. Fasterprocessors, improved memory, smaller batteries, andhighly efficient open-source operating systems thatperform complex functions have paved the way forthe development of a flood of medical mobile de-vice apps for both professional and personal use.

The ability to download medical apps on mobiledevices has made a wealth of mobile clinical re-sources available. Medical apps for many purposesare available, including ones for electronic prescrib-

ing, diagnosis and treatment, practice management,coding and billing, and CME or e-learning. A broadchoice of apps that assist with answering clinicalpractice and other questions at the point of careexist, such as: drug reference guides, medical cal-culators, clinical guidelines and other decisionsupport aids, textbooks, and literature search por-tals. There are even mobile apps that simulate sur-gical procedures or that can conduct simplemedical exams, such as hearing or vision tests.

Many mobile apps are not intended to replacedesktop applications, but are meant to comple-ment them in order to provide a resource that hasthe potential to improve outcomes at the point ofcare. The use of medical apps has become fre-quent and widespread; 70% of medical schoolHCPs and students reported using at least onemedical app regularly, with 50% using their fa-vorite app daily.

In July 2008, access to apps was further revo-

lutionized by the launch of the Apple iTunesAppstore, which gave iPad, iPhone, and iPodTouch (iTouch) users the ability to shop for anddownload apps from an online marketplace. As ofJanuary 2014, Apple reported that a staggering 1million apps were available through the iTunesAppstore. In 2011, Apple created the Apps forHealthcare Professionals section within the med-ical category of the iTunes Appstore, a uniquefeature among mobile app marketplaces. In 2013,this section was further divided into subcategoriesincluding: reference, medical education, EMRand patient monitoring, nursing, imaging, patienteducation, and personal care.18 Google similarlylaunched a Google Play shop that provides awide variety of apps, including some for HCPs,for mobile devices that use the Android operatingsystem. To reach more users, some mobile appshave been made available for use on either Appleor Android platforms.

The primary criteria for choice of app is oftencost; users may prefer to download a free app butwill replace or upgrade it later, if necessary, withone that requires payment. Some free apps arefully functional, while others are non-functionalor partially functional unless a subscription is pur-chased. The writer is Solution Architect/IT Consult-ant at Tekkie Tech


INS IGHT | Syed Shamweel Rehman

Mobility has allowed doctors tobe presented with any patient inany hospital via video conferenc-ing and allows them to view realtime patient information instantly

As Pakistan is at a much earlier stage in the stream, the oneof the major obstacles facing health IT in Pakistan is in-ade-quateness of this realization that information systems form thebackbone of any good policy and planning methodology,which eventually lead to better outcomes

Bringing clinicalinformation on mobiledevices

Femina Miss India International 2014,Jhataleka Malhotra has lunched ZTE V5smartphone in New Delhi which is nowavailable on Snapdeal.com on reasonable

price. The new mid-range smartphone runs An-droid 4.4.2 KitKat. Remember, India is a big mar-ket for smartphones, but at the same time poses atough competition because there are several na-tional and international companies trying to gaintheir user base in India, especially in mid-rangesegment.The ZTE V5 smartphone sports some decent

specs when it comes to the price range of Rs10,999, and is quite enough for an average user.The ZTE V5 features a 5-inch (7201280 pix-

els) HD IPS display with OGS and DragontrailGlass and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-coreQualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor coupledwith 1GB of RAM.It comes with 4GB of internal storage that can

be further expanded via microSD card (up to32GB). It sports a 13-megapixel rear Sony ExmorCMOS sensor with LED flash, and also houses a5-megapixel front camera with BSI sensor.The rear shooter comes preloaded with fea-

tures such as lightmeter, autofocus, stabliser, spe-cial effects, Panorama, and face detection features.It packs a 2400mAh battery which according

to the online retailer rated to give up to 6 hours oftalk time and 300 hours of standby time."Rather than low cost, our focus is on value for

money products. We have smartphones startingRs. 5,000, but overall, we would want to focus on$100-200 devices to drive sales for our Indian busi-ness," ZTE India CEO Mobile Business YuanKang told PTI.He further said that though the firm is fairly

new in the fiercely competitive smartphone mar-ket in the country, it is expecting to close the yearwith $3-4 million in revenues from the division."India is a huge market and we are confident

that our portfolio will meet Indian requirements.

We are building our brand and in the next fewmonths, we will launch 4-5 new handsets onlineand 3-4 devices offline," he said.The company is also looking at bringing its

'Nubia' range of premium smartphones to India.Meanwhile, ZTE presents three new innovative

and stylish smartphones at IFA 2014 in Berlin.The optically ident

Documents

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