Rashid Khan, President & CEO of Mobilink, has been nominated for “The CEO of the Year” Award by the World Communication Awards (WCA) 2009.

Rashid Khan is the only Pakistani to have been shortlisted for CEO of the Year Award, winners of which will be announced in November this year after a vigorous voting process. A forum that aims to bring together over 500 influencers and decision-makers, CEOs and senior executives from the communications industry, WCA recognizes the best industry players every year for their contribution.

Commenting on the recognition, the company spokesperson said, “We are extremely humbled to represent Pakistan positively on international forums and it is extremely inspiring to see our very own CEO being ranked with the best of the best. Such a prestigious global acknowledgement from the WCA for Mr. Rashid Khan’s leadership brings a great sense of pride and accomplishment among the individuals and teams working at Mobilink.”

Rashid Khan, acknowledged for his experience and vision as he heads Pakistan’s largest cellular network in terms of subscriber base and revenue, was shortlisted following a barrage of responses and equitable recommendations from the telecom circles. With more than 15 years of experience in telecommunications, IT, and other technologies, Khan has also held the role of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Banglalink, the fastest growing cellular operator in Bangladesh. Earlier Khan was the Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Mobilink and was a senior member of the management team who played a key role in the robust growth of Mobilink’s subscriber base.

The World Communication Awards were established in 1999 and recognize excellence amongst global telecom operators in various categories. Previous winners include Bharti Airtel, Etisalat, O2, Orange and VNL.

the Pakistan Software Export Board’s (PSEB) Open Source Resource Center (OSRC), in collaboration with the Pakistan Computer Association (PCA), organized an open source operating system workshop for over 70 vendors at the Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad. The hands-on training session included Linux orientation, system administration and troubleshooting.

Speaking at the workshop’s closing ceremony, the Chairman Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior, Senator Talha Mehmood, said that such workshops should be held more frequently so that Pakistan’s skilled IT professionals learn about modern developments in the field and serve the country by playing an active and more effective part in the growth of this important sector of the economy. He assured the participants that, keeping in view the importance of IT and the computer industry for the overall progress and development of the sector, he would raise the concerns of the IT industry at every possible forum. He urged the government to provide an enabling environment for the growth of the industry. Mr. Munawar Iqbal, Central President, PCA, and Mr. Khurram Islam Khan, Project Manger, OSRC, also spoke on the occasion.

This workshop was a part of the OSRC’s ongoing series of initiatives to combat software piracy in Pakistan by introducing open source as an alternative to proprietary software, to improve the participants’ skills-set, and to implement Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) at the grassroots’ level.

This was the OSRC’s and the PCA’s second collaboration. They had previously worked together to conduct the hardware vendors’ training program for 300 participants in Faisalabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta in 2008, where the OSRC’s customized training toolkits were distributed free-of-cost.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today it raised its long-term corporate credit rating on Pakistan-based wireless service provider Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd. (Mobilink) to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’. The outlook is stable. At the same time, we raised our issue rating on the company’s US$112.2 million senior unsecured notes due 2013 to ‘B-’ from ‘CCC+’.

Rashid Khan, President & CEO Mobilink “Despite a very challenging operating environment credit fundamentals of Mobilink have been broadly intact and it has managed to retain trust of international and local investors. The upgrade in rating reflects an improvement on the operating environment that was weighing negatively on our rating previously. It is heartwarming to see the positive outlook on Pakistan’s macroeconomic situation as we cannot isolate ourselves from the economic environment we operate in We are also grateful to our parent company Orascom Telecom Holding for their continued financial support that has helped us achieve this improvement in our ratings.. Competing in an aggressive market, Mobilink continues to maintain its leadership position and has added the most number of subscribers in July 2009 as compared to other operators. We look forward to continuing this tradition and meeting the expectations of our customers and investors alike.”

“We raised the rating on Mobilink to reflect our opinion of the improvement in its funding profile and Pakistan’s macroeconomic situation,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Yasmin Wirjawan. This follows Standard & Poor’s decision to raise the long-term
sovereign credit ratings on Pakistan (B-/Stable/C).

The rating on Mobilink also reflects our view of domestic political uncertainties and security risks, weak cash flow protection measures, and highly intense domestic industry competition. These risks are partly offset by strategic benefits from its parent, Orascom Telecom Holdings S.A.E. (B/Stable/–), and Mobilink’s leading but weakened market position in the country.

In our view, Mobilink continues to remain exposed to the weak macroeconomic environment, external liquidity position and security situation in Pakistan. However, we expect the recent improvement in macroeconomic environment to result in better operating performance. Also, in the near term, we expect Mobilink to face less funding challenges as it is expected to register positive free operating cash flows through significant reduction in capital expenditure and suspension of management fees to Orascom Telecom.

Pakistan’s cellular market continues to face intense competition, resulting in lower subscriber numbers and market share for Mobilink. Nevertheless, Mobilink has maintained its No. 1 market share both in terms of subscribers and revenue in Pakistan’s wireless market.

We believe parent Orascom Telecom would continue to provide support to Mobilink, if required, considering: (1) the cross-default clause at the parent company in the event of a covenant breach of material subsidiaries, including Mobilink; and (2) Mobilink is the second-largest operation of Orascom Telecom by most financial measures and accounted for 20.6% of the consolidated EBITDA for 2008.

The stable outlook reflects the expected improvement in Mobilink’s financial risk profile, compliance with financial covenants, and continued support from parent Orascom Telecom, said Ms. Wirjawan. It also factors in the improvement in Pakistan’s macroeconomic situation, which will have a positive impact on Mobilink.

Telenor Pakistan has been chosen as the most preferred employer for their HR practices in a survey conducted by ROZEE.PK. The survey is an initiative of ROZEE.PK, Pakistan’s online recruitment company with the objective to connect talent with opportunity. As a part of their research program, ROZEE.PK developed a poll for the visitors and the registrants of the web site about their perception of top ten HR brands of Pakistan from 2005 to 2009.

Country Consultant, Google Pakistan, Badar Khushnood, Manager HR, United Bank Limited Asma Ahmed, Director, Head of HR PakistanTobacco Company LTd., Q. M Shahed, Manager HR Development TCS, Sajid Mehmood Khan are some of the best Human Resource specialists who served on the Advisory Board for the survey.

Vice President Human Capital Division Telenor Pakistan Nayab Baig said, “Telenor Pakistan is pleased with the results of the Top Employers survey conducted by Rozee.PK. We appreciate the initiative and believe that such surveys help to create an in-depth understanding of our culture, environment and perception of HR practices in the market. Telenor Pakistan is dedicated to improvement through our people which we believe are our greatest strength.”

A total of 13,753 fully completed surveys were received which were further analyzed and validated by employing statistical software. 739 companies were covered by participants in this survey and 126 universities were represented by survey respondents. More than 66% of respondents are working professionals. Telenor Pakistan was voted as the most preferred employer by a pool of professionals between the ages of 22 and 40.

The responses were based on a number of factors that professionals found to be important in their employers. These were: work/life balance, flexible work schedules, progressive, compensation arrangements, clearly defined roles and policies, readily available assistance in the work place, progressive management style, room for growth and above all a trusting environment.

Telenor Pakistan is the top employer choice of respondents in Islamabad despite a heavy telecom presence that has a staggering 56% representation of all companies in the industry. Telenor Pakistan has won the Pakistan Society of Human Resources Management’s (PSHRM) Preferred Graduate Employer Award for Most Preferred Telecommunications Company for 2007. Telenor Pakistan has also won the Pakistan Society of Human Resources Management’s (PSHRM) HR Excellence Award for Employee Life Cycle Engagement HR Initiative. Telenor Pakistan was also declared runner-up for Best Place to Work Award across all industries for the year 2008. Telenor Pakistan has won the Middle East Call Center Award for Best Recruitment Program in 2008.

ISLAMABAD: Aug 22, PPI: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has extended date for payment of current telephone bills upto 26th Aug 2009 due to Bank Holiday on 24th, says a press release issued here on Saturday.

The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has taken the initiative of Haj e-balloting for encouraging its employees, especially those who provided services and support to internally displaced persons (IDPs) during the military operation in Malakand Division. Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of the Special Support Group (SSG), was the chief guest at a ceremony for Haj e-balloting for 29 employees. “We are thankful to Nadra for its dedicated efforts and efficient support in providing relief to IDPs in a transparent manner,” said Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmad. Balloting was done electronically based on employees data of Nadra’s seven regions; two employees were selected from each region, including Nadra headquarters.

Warid has achieved another landmark by expanding its quality network reach to 480 cities with over 6000 destinations across Pakistan.

Warid has rolled out its quality network services to 480 cities. As a result Warid has been able to provide GSM services throughout the country covering more than 12000Km. Warid’s mission is to maintain and deliver unmatched high quality network experience to every nook and corner of the country. It has pursued an aggressive expansion strategy to spread its network coverage from cosmopolitan cities to smaller towns and villages with the commitment to cover diverse landscape of Pakistan.

The network is expanding globally as well, offering roaming facilities in 140 countries through 225 operators globally.. Warid has one of the largest coverage networks available in Pakistan offering the best, economical and most innovative services in the telecommunication sector through highly skilled resources and some of the leading vendors in the global telecom industry.

As a responsible corporate citizen Warid has stood by the IDPs (Internally dislocated persons). The recent operation in turbulent areas  caused more than a million Pakistanis to migrate from their hometowns and almost 0.8 million people have already migrated from the restive areas and they are now living in very harsh conditions in Swabi, Mardan, Nowshera, Rawalpindi, Attock and other areas. The migrants are homeless, with no food & healthcare.

Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd has taken several initiatives to support the migrants by deploying Mobile PCOs in the affected areas. Also made special arrangements to keep its network running in all affected and surrounding areas despite logistical difficulties. Exclusive mobile vans are being moved to Sawabi, Nowshera and Jalozai camps to meet the communications needs of displaced people.

Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. has also initiated an exclusive short code for its customers to contribute towards the relief for the IDP’s. Warid prepaid and postpaid customers can now donate Rs 10 by sending an SMS “FUND” at 1199. All the proceedings will be deposited into PM’s IDP relief fund with no deductions.

Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd. has always taken the lead to help their brethren in Pakistan in the difficult times.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and FIA National Response Center for Cyber Crimes (NR3C), Islamabad has unearthed two illegal international VoIP gateway exchanges in F-6 and F-7 Islamabad. Three foreigners have been arrested during the seizure of these illegal exchanges.

This initiative is a part of the pursuance of PTA efforts against illegal telecom traffic and seventh successful raid in Islamabad. During the raid PTA and FIA team recovered 11×8 GSM tellulars, 4 GSM media gateways and 1x router, 4 switches and more than hundred GSM antennas.

PTA detected illegal setups through the Technical Facility installed to monitor the illegal business of telecom throughout the country. Upon investigation and confirmation, successful raids were conducted by PTA and FIA at Islamabad and operational international exchanges were seized. Mobile connections which are being used in GSM devices employed by terminating international calls brought via Grey routes is a cause of loss of rupees to national exchequer.

Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen said that these illegal operations of grey traffic has caused loss of millions of rupees in the last four month to the national exchequer. Chairman PTA also warned all whether licensee or non licensee those involved in illegal / grey telecom traffic to stop such unlawful activities, otherwise strict action shall be initiated against them as per the law.

The global innovation center of Raseen Technologies (UAE) was inaugurated under the patronage of Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen at Lahore today. This innovation center would pave way towards establishment of Pakistan’s first local Electronic Commerce Gateway. The arrangement has been made possible through mutual business collaboration between Bank Alfalah Private Limited and Raseen Technologies of UAE. The e-commerce gateway would enable merchants to allow their customers to pay on-line for their goods and services opening a new highway for electronic commerce in Pakistan.

Chairman PTA in his message emphasized that this noteworthy arrangement would appear as the right direction for inviting Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) transactions through a secure communication channel provided through Raseen infrastructure. He said that this gateway would encourage the electronic invasion of our products and services. He also spoke about PTA’s vision of promoting new technologies to enable an easy and reliable access to financial services for a common man via mobile and internet communication.

Chairman PTA admired the initiatives taken by Raseen Technologies and extended his full co-operation and support for proliferation of e-commerce. He also appreciated the efforts of PTA ICT Directorate, which actively pursued and coordinated the said arrangement in Pakistan.

At the occasion, Mr. Tariq Habib, CEO Raseen Technologies said that “Raseen delivers innovative solutions that help enrich the lives of people through creative, low cost and user-friendly interactions”. He expressed his gratitude to Chairman PTA for assistance offered by PTA throughout the process.

It may be mentioned that Raseen Technologies is a leading service provider specializing in mobile and electronic commerce solutions. Raseen is a member of the Dhabi Group – one of the largest FDIs in Pakistan with several strategic investments in banking, telecommunication and property sectors.