Thursday, August 19, 2004

Machine-readable passports from September

Machine-readable passports from September
Reported by DAWN

ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told the National Assembly on Thursday that the government would start issuing machine-readable passports by mid-September.

"Even the United States would not have this by September," he said while replying to questions in the assembly. He said Pakistan would be among the first few countries to issue such passports.

The minister rejected the assertion of People's Party Parliamentarians MNA Naveed Qamar that biometric passports would be introduced as a technology of the future in a few years.

"Machine-readable passports are more advanced than biometrics, with appropriate security safeguards," said the minister. In a written response to a question by MNA Rana Asif Tauseef, Mr Hayat said computerized national identity card or B-form in the case of children would be required in addition to original passport fee deposit slip for the passport.

He said the data would be transcribed in a system after the fingerprints, signatures and photograph of the applicant are captured. After examination and interview by an assistant director, immigration and passports, a system-generated receipt would be issued for collection of the passport.

When MNA Liaquat Baloch questioned the need for examination and interview by an official when data on citizens was available with the National Database and Registration Authority, the minister said that under the Passport Act, no one except an assistant director, immigration, could issue the passport. He said the official could also be held accountable if anything went wrong in issuance of passports.

In reply to a question by Rana Asif Tauseef, the minister said his ministry had asked the government to approve a Rs2.4 billion package to revamp Islamabad police. He said the PC-1 of the project had been prepared and after its approval funding was likely to be made available in the financial year 2005-06.

He said a major chunk of the funds amounting to Rs800 million would be utilized for construction of police barracks and raising a new security force for very very important personalities. The minister informed the house that two police stations in the capital were established in private buildings.
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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

HEC to set up seven libraries in Islamabad

HEC to set up seven libraries in Islamabad
Reported by DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/20/nat17.htm

ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Attaur Rehman on Thursday ordered establishment of seven libraries in different sectors of the federal capital.

The HEC and Capital Development Authority (CDA) have recently reached an agreement to set up seven libraries in Islamabad to provide the people with an easy access to the facility and to promote reading habit among the masses, officials sources in the HEC told Dawn.

The sectors where the libraries will be built in the first phase are: Markaz G-9, Markaz G-10, Markaz F-11, sectors F-10/2, F-8/2, I-8/3 and I-8/4. This will be the first phase of the project which in future will be extended, they said.

In response to the commission's initiative, CDA Chairman Kamran Lashari has already provided plots at various locations for the project. The libraries will also cater for the needs of children where they could spend time while reading books of their interests.

The HEC has also decided that the Islamabad library project would be developed as a model to be followed by other schemes in rest of urban centres in the country. Dr Ata has also requested the CDA chairman to provide more sites for establishment of libraries in other sectors in phase-II of the project. The HEC is of the view that each sector should have at least one library, the sources said.

The decision to launch the project has been taken to promote the reading habit amongst people as a first step towards improving education standard in the country. It has also been envisaged to invite people on voluntary basis to help in the effective operation and maintenance of the libraries in their respective sub-sectors as is done in the US.

According to an official statement on Thursday, Dr Ata, who is also in charge ministry of science and technology, has announced that planetariums would be set up in all the provinces for educational purposes.

The decision was taken after the HEC took over the control of PIA's planetarium in Karachi. The planetarium has been made part of the University of Karachi keeping in view its importance.

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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

AIOU to establish research complex

AIOU to establish research complex
Reported by DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/20/nat18.htm

ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Allama Iqbal Open University plans to establish a research complex at a cost of Rs50 million to provide modern research facilities to the scientists. The university also plans to set up a council to widen the scope of distance learning.

This was stated by the AIOU vice-chancellor, Dr Altaf Hussain, while talking to this agency. "The university is playing a pivotal role in achieving the goal of 'education for all', human resources and women development," the vice-chancellor maintained.

Replying to a question, he said the university had started various IT programmes, including setting up of Attaur Rehman Research Complex (ARRC) at a cost of Rs50 million which would be completed by March next.

The ARRC would be made the world's most trust-worthy research complex like the Dr Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. Modern research facilities in the fields of physics, chemistry and biology will be available in the proposed complex both for students as well as scientists.

The university has already imported research equipments and machinery of worth Rs50 million for the complex. Replying to another question regarding funding for the complex, he said it was being set up with the endowment fund of the university and no single penny had been demanded from the government.

"The endowment fund was Rs470 million, when I took charge as VC and now it has reached Rs1.002 billion", he added. Dr Hussain said the non-formal education system of the university should neither be ignored nor given less importance and more allocation should be made by the HEC to support its various important projects.

There was dire need of provision of land for its regional campuses in various cities, the VC exhorted, pointing out that at present most of the campuses are working in private rented houses and bungalows and the university is spending high amount on rent.

"Being one of the major universities of the world, it is unfortunate that its campuses are not on its own buildings and facing a lot of problems in this regard", he added.

He further said, we can construct multi-purpose building like the campus recently set up in Peshawar at a cost of Rs25 million. Dr Hussain also said that the education standard of the university was rising and an increase in the enrolment day by day shows a trust on the education system of the university by the people.

The university has not raised the fee and due to increase in the enrolment, the university is expected to collect Rs1 billion this year from the fees. Dr Hussain further informed that the university had started Ph.D, M.Phil and other science and technology programmes and hired experienced teachers, retired professors and scholars as teaching staff.

He said that the university was also working on a mission to further raise the education standard of distance learning and to bring it at par with the formal education system, so that the working people could get benefit from it.

He also said that a non-formal middle school programme had been initiated from Turbat, under which primary level education would be completed within six month, middle level within three years and the scope of this programme would spread across the country.

Giving detail of the future programmes of the university, he said that multi-purpose buildings were being planned to provide all the facilities to the students under one roof. A bridge is being constructed to link both parts of the university land with each other and spreading our system of education expeditiously, he concluded. -APP

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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

WLL to revolutionize telecom sector: PTA

WLL to revolutionize telecom sector: PTA
Reported by DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/20/nat16.htm

ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has completed the process of bidding for 14 telecom regions for the grant of Wireless Local Loop (WLL) licences with the conclusion of the auction of spectrum in Southern Telecom Region- V (STR-V) and Karachi Telecom Region (KTR) here on Thursday. According to a press release, the bidding for the 14 telecom regions for allocation of spectrum in 1.9 GHz, 450 MHz, 479 MHz and 3.5 GHz was likely to fetch investment to the tune of Rs14 billion and about 180 WLL licences were expected to be issued for operation in various regions. In his remarks, the PTA chairman Maj-Gen (retired) Shahzada Alam said the launching of WLL service in the country would bring a revolution in the telecom sector and the process would fetch huge investment. He said the completion of spectrum bidding was the culmination of the deregulation of telecom sector. He said WLL was the modern technology which best suited to the prevailing environment in Pakistan and the service would prove very useful in the rural areas. In the bidding of spectrum in 1.9 GHz in STR-V, one block was taken by the PTCL at the highest bid of Rs79 million while two other blocks were secured by Tele card and World Call. In the bidding for the spectrum of 450 MHz, both the carriers were won by DV Com at the highest bid of Rs32 million each. Only one block in the frequency of 479 MHz was available which was offered to World Call at the highest bid of Rs11 million. Seven blocks in the frequency of 3.5 GHz were available and one each was obtained by Tele card, DV Com, PTCL, World Call, Burraq Telecom, Warid WLL and Sachal Soft Tech at the base price of Rs58,000. Out of the three blocks in the KTR, the PTCL gave the highest bid of Rs1.204 billion for one block in the spectrum of 1.9 GHz while the other two blocks were allocated to Tele card and DV Com at the matching cost. In 450 MHz band, three carriers were available out of which two were allotted to World Call at the highest bid of Rs88 million for each carrier, while the third carrier was taken by Microtech links on the highest bid of Rs37 million for one block in the spectrum of 3.5 GHz, while six other blocks each were awarded to Tele card, DV Com, PTCL, Burraq Telecom, Warid WLL and Cyber Internet.

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Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================

Building for IT institute inaugurated at KU

Building for IT institute inaugurated at KU
Reported in DAWN
http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/20/local4.htm

KARACHI, Aug 19: A new building constructed with the financial support of a US-based NGO for an information technology institute was inaugurated at the University of Karachi on Thursday. The Computer Science department of Karachi University, established in 1985, presently housed in the Aiwan-i-Iqbal hostel building, will now be shifted to the new building and upgraded as the Umaer Basha Institute of Information Technology at the beginning of the first semester of the varsity's 2005 session. The building of the institute, made like that of the IT department of the Massachusists Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA, has a total construction area of 68,000sq-ft comprising three floors and built at a cost of Rs56 million mainly donated by the Umaer Basha Foundation, USA, and the KU, Project Director Dr S M Aqil Burney said. The other donors are president of Pakistan and the Higher Education Commission. President Gen Pervaiz Musharraf had laid the foundation stone of the institute in March, 2002. According to Dr Fatima Zehra Basha, she had dedicated the building, named after her son Omaer, a student at MIT, who died young, to the Pakistani students with the hope that the institute would be able to compete with any other university in the world in the filed of computer and information technology. Addressing the UBIT students, she said: "My young friends, the institute has been designed to look beyond today. I look forward to you for defining UBIT as a centre of excellence through your enthusiasm, devotion, commitment, and through can-do attitude of working together will cultivate a culture of excellence. Focus on excellence in every aspect of your life. You, your families and the nation at large will benefit from this." In his speech, the chief guest of the ceremony, Dr Atta-ur-Rehman, the in charge minister of science and technology, appreciated the support of the Basha family and said that the building would symbolize the great love of the family for the University of Karachi, the country and its people. He hoped that the UBIT would prove a major step towards national development, higher education and research. If we pay due attention to education of manpower and promoted the culture of knowledge and research, we would be able to tackle issues pertaining to democracy and corruption as well, he mentioned. The KU Vice-Chancellor, Dr Pirzada Qasim, said that the students of the university could repay the donors by contributing to the fast expanding world of IT. He informed the audience that the Dr Fatima Basha and her husband Dr Anwer Basha were the KU students and had a desire to do some thing for their alma mater, and it was the sudden loss of their beloved son, which pushed them to complete the project in minimum possible time. The vc said that the Higher Education Commission had also created an endowment fund of Rs179 million to support the research activities and the PhD programme of institute. Among others, the dean of Science faculty, Dr Muhammad Qaiser, the acting director of the HEJ Institute of Chemistry, Dr Iqbal, the chairman of the Computer Science department, Dr Nasir Touheed, Amina Ferheen Basha, daughter of Dr Fatima Basha, also spoke on the occasion. Dr Touheed said that the institute would serve as a focal point with its state-of-the-art building, teaching and research facilities for over 1,600 students and scholars. He urged the minister to ensure high-salary package for the institute's faculty members.
======================================================
Copyright C. 2002 - 2004
Pakistan Science and Engineering Forum (R)
"Kindling the Flame of Science in Pakistan (TM)"
PakSEF (TM) Daily Science News Update
=====================================================