Due to the on-going War against Terrorism, the so-called attack on extremism, had led to many clashes which created an unending conflict in Swat between the Pakistan Army and the Taliban. The casualty of this catastrophe was not just the human beings and their lives, but also Pakistani cinema. The Taliban shut down each and every single...
Pakistan Cricket Board has luckily been shown interest by four different corporations who all want to help launch Pakistan’s first ever international T20 league. Competing with everything that India does, Pakistan does not want to leave behind when it comes to cricket. Already with the banning of international matches in the country...
Pakistan will filter internet The Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) has apparently decided to shelve its plans to install a massive URL blocking system. The MoIT, through its research arm, the National Information & Communication Technology Research and Development Fund had thorough a public advertisement on February 23, 2012,...
Ufone is the only mobile network in Pakistan to bring you the world famous and exciting BBM™ at the lowest rate ever! We are proud to introduce Ufone Social and Ufone Complete. Now you can make your Ufone BlackBerry as cool as yourself. With Ufone Social for just Rs. 350 per month only, you can enjoy unlimited BBM™, Facebook, Twitter,...
Just as the new technologies emerge, newer ways of dealing with their impacts also come out just as they get mixed in a society. In the wrong hands, however, these technologies could prove fatal. There have been many cybercrimes which have taken place in different parts of the world since the internet first emerged. These crybercriminals...
Pakistan has recently asked foreign companies to grant them a system to filter and block websites. The request comes after the use of encryption has been banned in the country as well as censorship of the SMS text messages has also been put into place. A lot the people are interpreting this as a means to curb freedom of expression of...
A giant whale shark washed ashore near Karachi fisheries harbor in Karachi, Pakistan on 7 February and was sold for 1.7 million PKR ($18,758).
The 40-foot long shark washed ashore in Karachi, Pakistan, and was lifted from the ground by three cranes. Local residents then bid on the shark, which fetched a price of 1.7 million PKR. The shark was spotted unconscious in the water 10 days ago, and fishermen waited until it was closer before attempting to move the fish.
The whale shark is hunted for its meat, oil, and fins, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. “Populations appear to have been depleted by harpoon fisheries in Southeast Asia and perhaps incidental capture in other fisheries. High value in international trade, a K-selected life history, highly migratory nature and normally low abundance make this species vulnerable to commercial fishing.”
In an era where smartphone usage is more about applications, RIM is yet to make the BlackBerry App World available in Pakistan. App World was made available in the United Arab Emirates only recently.
The App World becomes even more important, for RIM, with the launch of the Blackberry Playbook Tablet PC. We find use of the PlayBook pointless without the ability to download and install applications.
Availability is for RIM’s own good. For their own fast dwindling business, especially with the rise of the Android OS.
There is no clear timeline from RIM on when AppWorld will be available in Pakistan either, we can only hope that blog posts such as this one will reach the BlackBerry manufacturer’s ears!
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy becomes the first Pakistani to ever receive an Oscar nomination, which is considered to be the highest honour in filmmaking and motion pictures in America and around the globe. The Oscar nominations were announced on January 24, Tuesday. She is a famous journalist and documentary filmmaker who received a nomination for her documentary short-subject called Saving Face in the category of Best Documentary – Short Subject.
She is already an Emmy winner for her documentary short-film called Pakistan: Children of the Taliban, winning the recognition in 2010. She does many such works on subjects of child abuse, violence against women, terrorism and natural disasters, and the issues which concern Pakistan negatively. Sharmeen has worked on 14 films for many US and British networks. She is amongst the founding members of Citizen Archives of Pakistan, which is an NGO working toward spreading awareness about Pakistan’s culture and history from the citizens’ perspectives.
Her latest attempt in Saving Face is to spread awareness and bring to light issues concerning women. It is about two women from South Punjab who became victims of acid violence. She covers the development of the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill, whereby the guilty of acid violence will be given life imprisonment as a punishment. The Pakistani-British plastic surgeon, Dr. Muhammad Jawad who helps these women out of their physical misery, travels to Pakistan and does reconstructive surgery on survivors of acid attacks. His work has also been covered.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
When she was asked to comment upon short-listing of her short-film in October 2011, she said:
“It’s a positive story about Pakistan on two accounts: firstly, it portrays how a Pakistani-British doctor comes to treat them and it also discusses, in great depth, the parliament’s decision to pass a bill on acid violence.”
Popular internet search engine Google and websites like YouTube could be shut down in Pakistan if they did not cooperate with authorities investigating crimes and incidents of terrorism, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has warned.
Malik made the remarks at the headquarters of the Federal Investigation Agency here while interacting with reporters.
He urged the websites to extend help to authorities to exterminate terrorism from the country.
The government would be compelled to block certain websites including YouTube and search engine Google if they did not extend cooperation to authorities, Malik said.
The Taliban and other terrorist organisations were sharing intelligence through the internet and it is imperative to curb these activities, he said.
Malik did not give details of the crimes and incidents of terrorism that the websites could provide information about.
TV news channels also quoted Malik as saying that he had issued an order for a case to be registered against the administrator of Google Pakistan.
The minister has faced criticism and ridicule from civil society and rights groups for several of his recent comments.
Malik had recently claimed that jealous girlfriends and wives, and not political groups or criminals, were responsible for a majority of target killings in the southern port city of Karachi.
China is all set to launch Pakistan’s communication satellite into space at an appropriate time in the coming days, a Chinese news service said on Wednesday.
According to Xinhua news, a spokesman for the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province said Wednesday the satellite, the PAKSAT-1R, will be carried by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.
PAKSAT-1R will replace PAKSAT-1 which is likely to complete its useful life this year. Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, Masood Khan said the launch will broaden the horizons of cooperation between the two countries.
“Launching of a communication satellite is going to be a symbolic development in Pakistan-China relations, as this will broaden the horizons of our cooperation,” he said.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Center for Advance Studies and Engineering (CASE) and Institute of Space Technology (IST) to promote telecom related research that would be beneficial for the institutions, the telecom industry as well as for the country. These MoUs would also boost mutual cooperation in the relevant fields and would enhance the industry academia linkages. Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Member Technical PTA, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar, President CASE Dr. Abdul Khaliq and Vice Chancellor IST, Brig Imran Rehman attended the ceremony held at PTA Headquarters today.
On this occasion, Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen said that currently Pakistan has state of the art telecom networks while we are working on enhanced international communication links. We are planning to improve terrestrial links with Afghanistan, Central Asia and China which would help economy and flow of information in the country. PTA would provide data on telecom sector and expertise to CASE and IST, reciprocally the Universities would encourage their students to undertake research in different areas of telecom sector.
He said that under the MoUs, PTA would help CASE and IST in identification of research areas. Similarly, CASE and IST would cooperate with PTA on different issues of trade, business and economy related to telecom sector. President CASE Dr. Abdul Khaliq and Vice Chancellor IST, Brig Imran Rehman, also spoke on the occasion and emphasized on the need of telecom research in the universities. They appreciated the fast growth in telecom sector and steps taken by PTA in this regard.
Main objectives of these collaborations are to support research integrated activities and to equip future leadership with theoretical and practical training in policy and regulatory issues of telecom sector. It is expected that the related organizations would benefit from this collaboration as young experts would be conducting research in the relevant fields of telecom with guidance of the faculty and PTA which could be converted into entrepreneurship. Industry is working on Venture Capital for entrepreneurship activities.
It may be mentioned that PTA being an academia friendly organization has already signed MoUs with COMSATS, NUST and UET Texila. PTA has been working continuously towards encouragement of research activities in telecom sector and taken number of initiatives to establish strong linkages with educational institutions for the promotion of telecom research. PTA has taken significant steps that have received positive response from the all stakeholders. These initiatives include PTA Gold Medal Scheme, Essay Competition on World Telecom Day and cash prizes for best research project competition and SMS-based Information System for educational institutions.
