Pakistan court releases Raymond Davis

ISLAMABAD: An Additional Sessions judge Wednesday set free CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistanis on a busy road in Lahore, after payment of blood money (Diyat) in accordance with Sharia law of Pakistan, sources said.

Talking to Geo News, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the court released Raymond Davis after the family members of the murdered men appeared in the court and pardoned the US National after an agreement was reached between the two sides. “He has been released from jail and now it is up to him to leave the country whenever he wants,” the Minister added.

The families of the murdered men, Fahim and Faizan, accepted the blood money of 2.34 million dollars (equal to Rs200 million) while, according to sources, four US visas were also part of the deal.

The killings by Raymond Davis in Lahore in January strained relations between Pakistan and US, who repeatedly insisted Davis was an embassy employee and enjoyed diplomatic immunity, particularly after it emerged he was working for the CIA.

Only IG Police, US Consul General in Lahore Carmela Conroy and lawyers were present during the hearing in Central Jail, sources said.

The counsel of the bereaved families, Manzoor Butt alleged that the families of Faizan and Fahim were forcibly brought from their homes to the court.

Lawyers for the families said they had been held on gun-point for four hours at the jail court where Davis was being tried on Wednesday, but had not been allowed to witness proceedings. They were also warned against uttering a word before the media, sources said.

Blood money, or ‘Diyat’ is a provision under Islamic sharia law in which compensation can be paid to relatives of those killed to secure a pardon, and is commonly used to resolve such cases in Pakistan.

The Davis case had sparked protests in Pakistan, with religious groups angrily denouncing the American who claimed he acted in self-defence to fend off an armed robbery when he shot dead the two men.

US authorities insisted Davis was protected by full diplomatic immunity, but the Pakistan government refused to back that claim and a decision on his status was on Monday deferred by the Lahore high court for criminal judges to decide.

Revelations that Davis was a CIA contractor heaped pressure on Pakistan's embattled government and further ramped up burning public mistrust of Washington, damaging fragile relations between the two wary allies.

A third Pakistani was struck down and killed by a US diplomatic vehicle that came to Davis' assistance in the January incident. US officials denied Pakistan access to the vehicle, and the occupants are widely believed to have left the country. (Geo/AFP)

Is Telecom Sector Involved in Parchi System?

First of all, let me be clear that I am writing this after getting inspiration from Telenor’s Khamoshi ka Boycott campaign.

After reviewing their earlier advertisements and criticizing them hard (based on our own viewpoint), I must admit that their this particular TVC about parchi system is indeed something to look at.

Though, call it pessimism or maybe I am more realistic, I don’t find this campaign bringing a significant revolution in terms of changing the current parchi system in our culture, however, it indeed has triggered us to think the state of HR policies in various organizations.

And today, we will talk about Telecom sector!

I have spoken to more than a dozen telecom officials in last two days, and asked them about their HR policies, recruitment procedures and chances of being influenced by Parchi, references and the pressure from external sources in employing someone.

Public Relation departments of Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid and Zong were of the view that there is no ‘parchi system’, at all, in their respective companies, hence we can conclude from their conversations that Parchi System is something unknown to telecom sector.

Though, couple of of them, including Telenor PR Head, agreed to a point that they are at times asked and influenced by regulator, government officials, regarding jobs – but they never entertain such requests.

On other hands, when I spoke to other departments especially the HR officials in various organizations, they hinted us of parchi system, to some extent at least.

One of the official said:

Telecom companies are part of Pakistan ’s socio system. So we can’t separate this industry from the rest of the country. How can you think of a Telecom company not being influenced by regulator, government or those who have got higher stakes in management?

While I agree with this official, here is one more viewpoint from another unnamed official:

Parchi system was largely in-practice just few years back, when telecom sector was booming. I can give you names, examples, however, now – the situation is different. Every company is looking for best resource at best price so there are very little chances of hiring someone based on some external pressure.

After saying this, he agreed to following:

If someone has got a reference, and he is capable at the same time, then obviously the candidate has better chances to get the job.

From all this, I can safely say that evidences of parchi system are there in telecom sector too, maybe not as significant as in other industries/organizations.

Our readers, mostly being from telecom sector, we would like to request your input on this, to tell us “Have you seen anyone getting job in Telecom sector through Parchi System?”

Please share your personal stories, if any, in below comments or send us email here

Based on readers’ input (in comments and emails), we will do a follow up story in coming days, with more facts.

Bridging Digital Divide in Pakistan

Digital divide is a term used to define the gap between people with effective access to digital world and those who have no or limited access to modern technology in their daily lives.

Last one decade is widely considered as a decade of revolution as far as Pakistan Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) industry is concerned. Mobile Phones and Broadband Internet have replaced land lines and Internet Cards respectively. But has it really reached through out the country or merely some big cities making them envied for the larger chunk of our population living in villages and small cities. We will have a look on this in following:

While in Pakistan, during the past decade the usage of Mobile phones and Internet has tremendously increased but our rural areas are still greatly devoid of this phenomenon. Though Mobile Phones have reached majority of the population but the Internet phenomenon haven’t reached as compared to Mobile phones.

While mobile phones are being used only as a mean of communication, Internet can be utilized to change the social conditions of any population.

Though Mian Shehbaz Sharif’s Punjab Government is providing facility of computer labs in Government schools through out the Punjab but there are no teachers to make these labs function and what function can they do when there is no electricity in the country.

In this regard efforts of Universal Service Fund (USF) founded by Government of Pakistan in 2006 are also recommendable. USF promotes the development of Telecommunication services in under-served areas through out the country.

The key objectives of USF are:

To bring the focus of telecom operators toward rural population and increase the level of telecom penetration significantly in rural areas through effective and fair utilization of the funds.
To improve the Broadband penetration in the country.
To bring significant advances towards enhancement of e-services, both in rural as well as urban areas of the country.
Since USF’s formation in 2006, it is working on Rural Telecom Projects in un-served areas, for which contracts have been signed with major Telecom service providers in the country for providing telecom services.

USF is also contributing to other fields. The special project ‘ICT for persons with disabilities’ involves providing ICT related equipment for special person’s institutions.

Here is what Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) a non-profit group based in Islamabad suggests about how to measure and bridge the digital divide:

The importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to economic development has been recognized widely during the last decade. The development promises made by the significant growth of ICTs are challenged by the so-called digital divide. The ‘digital divide’ refers to the drastic differences in levels of ICT access between different population groups.

Pakistan also faces a Gender Digital divide where girls don’t even know how to operate a mobile phone and a computer. The steps taken to bridge the digital divide in the country includes an accord with Microsoft in January 2010 called “Microsoft Computer literacy program”


A similar accord was signed by Punjab government with Microsoft in Jan 10 under which Microsoft will extend its support for the development of local IT industry. The company will also setup an innovation centre at software Technology Park.


Steps to Bridge Digital Divide in Pakistan


Here are some of the steps that need to be taken immediately by the Government to bridge the Digital divide in the country:

A federal level survey of every district and every village of the country to access the level of the predicament.
Provide sufficient funding and employ private-public partnership to reach to the masses.
Provide full support and necessary tools to equip the low economic background people.
Make a regulatory body independent of political influence.
Provide public with clear goals and direction for the project.
These are only the few basic steps to bridge digital divide in Pakistan for the smooth flow of knowledge to every corner of the country and uplift the standards of the poor classes of our country and bring them into the National fabric for better functioning of our economy and improve our image as a friendly Nation in the world community.

Nexus S to Launch in Pakistan on March 25th

Google’s Nexus S is going to get launched in Pakistan on March 25th, this was revealed by Haris Nadeem on AndroidPakistan.com.

Moreover, it is said that Mobilink is going to partner with Samsung for the launch of Nexus S, just like they previously did for Samsung Galaxy Tab.

According to androidpakistan, Samsung’s Nexus S will be priced around Rs. 49,999, in the start.

In past, we covered some details on hardware and specification of Nexus S here. More details on Nexus S will be communicated to you as soon as we get them.

PTCL to Offer ICT Solutions to Sindh Government

PTCL has signed a contract with Sindh Government to provide it a system which will ease of the tax collection procedure, reported Daily Times.

Under this agreement, PTCL will provide data connectivity solutions to Excise and Taxation offices throughout the province of Sindh for integrating the tax collection process.

This will not only facilitate taxpayers in submission of taxes but will also result in transparent and efficient tax collection processes in the province.

Excise & Taxation Department is the main tax-collecting agency of the provincial government. The department is responsible for levy and tax collection.

These services offer secure, reliable and integrated end-to-end domestic connectivity solutions to cater data connectivity demand of tax collecting department.

PTCL will equip the government of Sindh with its state of the art data center services, satellite communication links, videoconference and wireless broadband services.

The agreement signing ceremony was held at the office of Secretary Excise and Taxation Manzoor. A. Memon on March 14, 2011.

SEVP BZS Abdulla Yousef said,

PTCL is heavily investing in these ICT assets on behalf of our customers so that they can focus on their core competencies. PTCL is deeply committed to providing technology of international standards to government, educational and enterprise markets so that it can play a major role in the development of the country.

Google Tsunami Alert 8.9 Earthquake in Japan 2011

Google Tsunami Alert for New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, and others. Waves expected over the next few hours, caused by 8.9 earthquake in Japan.

List-of-108-locations-lined-up-for-Solidarity-Day-in-Pakistan-1st-Jan-2011

The amazing team of volunteers at Aman Ittehad have pledged to hold Solidarity Day peace rallies in 108 locations across Pakistan. The list is growing at a fast paced, commitments coming in from various location throughout Pakistan and contact details being updated frequently.
Shared below is the latest list, which is a work in progress, if you are interested in being part of the nationwide Solidarity Day, just show up at your local Press Club at 1:00pm on 1st January 2011 and join the effort

Solidarity-Day-for-Peace-in-Pakistan-1st-Jan-2011-[100-cities-across-Pakistan]

Rallies for peace will be held on 1 Jan 2011 in over 100 locations across Pakistan in solidarity with those suffering violence and repression.
We demand accountability of all, particularly those that use religion or any ideology to create hatred amongst the people of the region. We condemn the use of political, military or economic power to repress and exploit people. In doing so demand an end to the protection of all those state and non-state actors that take the law in their own hands and propagate or encourage militancy and extremism by their words or actions.
We, the citizens are ready to lead the nation to progress, to justice, equity and tolerance. The people’s interest instead of the much flouted National interest must be the measure for all actions and policies of the state.
Solidarity Day is an expression of the power of ordinary citizens. It is a call to enable the people of this region to exercise their choices and free will. It is a clear message that we SHALL NOT sit back and watch.

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Winter-Clothes-Hampers-Distributed-in-Dadu-and-Juhi

OffroadPakistan team would like to thank Nishat Welfare Organization [A. Sattar Ishaqani] and Naari Development Organization [Dr Meher Zaidi] for helping us to distribute over 1000 winter clothes hampers in the regions of Dadu and Juhi. The OffroadPakistan was able to identify the need to supply flood relief to Dadu [Nishat Welfare Organization] and also in Juhi [Naari Development Organization] in both places we were able to send winter clothes, kitchen utensils, food and water for families housed in these areas.