Home »Telecommunication » Pakistan » USF’s broadband contract for Jazz in S Waziristan
The Universal Service Fund (USF) has awarded the new contract worth Rs90 million to Jazz under its broadband for sustainable development project in South Waziristan. The contract signing ceremony took place between USF CEO Haris Mahmood Chaudhry and Jazz Chief Corporate Officer Syed Ali Naseer in presence of the Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication here on Thursday.

Under the agreement, Jazz will work towards provision of inexpensive and reliable cellular access to people of South Waziristan. Under this project, cellular services would be provided to more than 0.64 million people in 411 deprived villages in South Waziristan.

Addressing the ceremony, the Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the government was committed to connect all deprived and less developed areas including erstwhile Fata through modern Information Communication Technology (ICT) to provide speedy and reliable information to people besides broaden their knowledge on national and international issues.

Adviser to the Chief Minister on merged areas, Ajmal Wazir, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on IT, Kamran Bangash, Chief Executive Officer USF Haris Mahmood Chaudhry, Jazz Chief Corporate and Enterprise Officer Syed Ali Naseer and elected MPAs of South Waziristan besides tribal elders and maliks attended in large number.

The Federal Minister said today is an era of information technology and the government was striving hard to connect all backward areas including merged tribal districts with state-of-the-art ICT services as per Prime Minister's vision of Digital Pakistan.

He said that the event is the milestone for people of South Waziristan as ICT services would help them to get fast 3G and 4G services in a single click besides would bridge digital divide in South Waziristan."We are moving towards Digital Pakistan that would change destiny of our people," he said, adding extending of ICT services to South Waziristan was a land mark step forward for a well informed and knowledge-based society in erstwhile Fata.

The minister said biotechnology is making strong inroads in the modern world and it would bring revolution in lives of people in Pakistan also. He said peace has been established from Karachi to Khyber due to supreme sacrifices by our people and security forces, adding extending of ICT services to merged areas including South Waziristan and North Waziristan has testified establishment of durable peace in merged areas.

Later talking to media persons, the Minister said Karachi which contributes 65 percent financial resources for Pakistan and 95 percent for Sindh province was confronted with a number of problems like clean drinking water and solid waste management and it is the responsibility of PPP Government to address it.

He said article 140-A of the constitution laid great emphasis on empowerment of local government system in all respect aimed to quickly address civic problems of people including Karachi.

He said around 3000 tonnes of solid waste is generated in District Central Karachi against which only about 1200 tonnes are being disposed of daily, saying this situation could easily be addressed by empowering local government system in Karachi.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019


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