Punjab’s laptop scheme has become controversial, so is the case with Mr. Shahbaz Sharif. It is yet to ascertain if this whole campaign against Mr. Sharif is outcome of Prime Minister’s conviction, as political silos are hot like hell, or  allegations against laptop scheme are for real. We will try to evaluate few of them below.

From what it appears, all political parties are currently doing their best to outperform others in blames, accusations, allegations and what not. Media has apparently decided not to remain behind too.

This whole scenario has engulfed the laptop scandal with fierce beating that it got from media with some sensitive and reasonable questions. But at the same time media men are throwing serious rubbish, something that they are notorious for.

Let’s take an example of Mubashir Luqman. Before we get to our discussion, please watch this video clip from his show on Dunya TV on May 1st, 2012:

I won’t discuss the pricing of laptops or the decision of Punjab government to give away laptops instead of building schools – this is something that can be argued and should be argued for better and transparent governance.

But I will rather focus on other matters such as Mr. Luqman has claimed that the Laptops were not manufactured by Dell company, instead they were manufactured in China. Probably he is of the view that these laptops are china-made fake copies of dell. Sir; you need to pay a visit to computer market and look at the back side of laptops to straighten your facts. It will help.

Then he goes on to compare Youth initiative laptops with another model of dell without mentioning the model of laptop. Following is the screenshot of the comparison:

Mr. Luqman further alleges that operating system in Punjab Laptops is not original but a pirated copy of Microsoft Windows. He also regrets that Punjab government could be in real trouble if Microsoft gets notice of this incident. Maybe Mr. Luqman was misinformed on this as Punjab Youth Laptops come with Ubuntu OS – which is an open source free operating system.

Mubashir Luqman astonished everyone by claiming that Punjab Laptops (which are actuallyDell Inspiron N4050 with variations in processor and RAM) is a 15 years old technology. Well I am not kidding here, you can watch above video yourself to see what exactly he said.

Maybe Mr. Luqman hadn’t the opportunity to buy or operate a computer 15 years ago (somewhere around 1997) when we had to pay the price of a laptop for just 16 MB Ram.

Mr. Mubashir Luqman also terms Punjab Youth Laptop 400 times slower than the original Dell laptop without mentioning his gauges.

Again, this whole scheme could be a waste of money. Maybe 4 billion rupees could have been used for better education, or maybe for another education department for lot better means. But it is really shocking, disgraceful and shameful to twist facts, rather telling direct lies, just to support an argument.

Even worse, this TV show was translated and distributed by a newswire (Online News Network) to whole media. They went even further by claiming that actual price of laptop was Rs. 19,500 which was bought by Punjab Government for Rs. 37,700.

Have a look at following clipping taken from today’s Jang Newspaper:

Waseela Microfinance Bank Limited (WMBL) announced the commencement of its operations in Pakistan with the opening of its first branch in Islamabad.

This commercial launch of its first branch in Islamabad (F8 Markaz) could be be termed as a soft launch with limited products in offering.

Easypaisa would be relieved to see this tiny launch by Waseela Bank. Sure they have secured a better market placement with huge competing difference for others to fill.

Waseela Bank is yet to get its website live, in fact its showing “Coming Soon” message on it, while we are told that product information will be communicated to us by week end.

Waseela Bank said that product portfolio will include flagship service for branchless banking, which is likely to surface in two to three months from now.

Waseela Microfinance Bank has been established to cater the need for banking and financial services that are easily accessible for the unbanked and under-banked.

Waseela Microfinance Bank Limited said that its goal is to serve lower-income groups by providing structured financial services suited to their needs. WMBL is a fully owned subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holdings, and a sister concern of Mobilink – Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (PMCL).

Speaking at the inauguration, Ghazanfar Azzam, President and CEO, Waseela Microfinance Bank Limited highlighted, “Waseela Microfinance Bank and its management will continue to research, innovate and offer customer focused solutions that are easily accessible to the general public. I want to thank the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for acting as a progressive and supportive central bank and creating an enabling environment for the holistic growth of microfinance in Pakistan.”

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has revised tariff for Pakistan Plus package.

PTCL customers can avail 1,100 on-net free minutes along with free conference call facility at Rs. 249 per month.

With the new Pakistan Plus Package, PTCL landline customers can also enjoy the liberty of nationwide unlimited free calls from PTCL to PTCL and Vfone on Sundays.

“PTCL continues to provide the most affordable telecommunication packages and special offers to its customers,” said PTCL Senior Executive Vice President Commercial, Naveed Saeed. “With this revision, we have made 24/7 connectivity possible with unmatched voice quality and, that too, at the lowest rates in the industry for all our valued customers.”

“Our aim is to exceed the expectations of our customers by providing them unlimited on-net dialing facility at the lowest rate,” said PTCL Executive Vice President Wire-line Business, Aasif Inam. “PTCL continues to strive for maintaining its competitive edge in the market by offering its customers the lowest dialling rates and quality services.”

SAP Pakistan introduces analytical ERP solutions for businesses in Pakistan which are geared to provide operational efficiency and excellent ROIs through higher productivity and better management of routine functions.

These technological offerings such as SAP HANA are aimed at providing mobility to companies through resourceful database management and revolutionizing decision-making by dramatically increasing the speed of existing processes and accessing large amounts of data in shorter periods of time.

In today’s highly competitive business climate, immediate access to and analysis of all operational data ultimately determines the success of an organization. Companies demand insight into business operations as they happen in order to be able to react quickly to changing market conditions. To have a firm grip on the market pulse, SAP Pakistan provides the best possible solutions for companies belonging to any sector.

Speaking on the occasion, Darren Rushworth, Executive Managing Director, SAP Pakistan and the Emerging Markets said, “SAP Pakistan remains committed to the development of the business sector of this country and in order to provide them with better functionality and operations management, we are introducing pioneering ERP solutions which will increase their efficiency and thus benefit their productivity.” He stressed on the importance of better technological infrastructure for companies and said, “Organizations need to be provided with better technical framework and database management and SAP Pakistan provides them with just the right solutions for all their business-related problems.”

Hassan Jamal, Country Liaison Manager, SAP Pakistan said, “SAP Pakistan aims at giving a competent edge to companies in Pakistan so that they can conduct their business with higher proficiency. Currently their outdated methods of operations management hinder their output; hence SAP Pakistan provides them with high-end database management systems and other analytical software so that they can gain momentum in delivering outstanding results.”

SAP Pakistan focuses on the progress of the business segment in this country and they believe that it can be achieved only through providing them with technological competency so that they can prove to be more successful drivers of economic growth in Pakistan.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is going to revise the information memorandum for auction of 3G spectrum license once the process of hiring of International Consultant is finalized by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), told Dr. Muhammad Yasin while briefing National Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Information Technology yesterday.

Briefing the committee, Dr. Yasin said the Information Memorandum will be revised after completion of the consultant process. The government has already considered the option of creating a group of local experts for auction of the 3G license, but during a meeting with the prime minister it was decided to hire a consultant for this purpose, he maintained, but the committee questioned that who will determine that the group selected consists of real experts and not personal choice of the government.

Advocate Anusha Rehman Khan was the convener of the committee. She discussed several case studies for 3G license auction with participants that could be replicated in Pakistan in order to earn maximum revenue.

She said that UK model is the best one and the government of Pakistan has to follow it. In order to make the method of auction more transparent, three points – efficiency, competitiveness and revenue generation – should be kept in front. All these points were ensured in the UK while auction of 3G licence.

The PTA chairman told the committee that after introduction of latest information technology policy issued on December 19, 2011 the government is going to revise its policy. Spectrum is a precious item and it required efficient use. “We are going to establish new terms of references.”

The PTA chairman further told the committee that for the sake of efficient use of spectrum, the government is using the word neutral technology (3G/4G/LTE etc) within the available space of spectrum. This is policy directive and widely used across the globe. The optimum use of spectrum means to generate more revenue for the government along with serving the people.

Speaking on the occasion, Telecom Ministry of Information Technology member Ismail Shah said that the government is going to offer three slots of spectrum and one of defunct license of Instaphone.

Any company that will have the license of Instaphone will have to start operations immediately and for three spectrum slots if new entrants remain successful, they can lay the equipment and system but commercially they can start function after June 2013. He said four new entrants (one for Instaphone and three slots for 3G spectrum) can participate in the process of auction for 3G license.

In order to prevent SMS spamming, cellular mobile operators have started suspending outgoing services of those mobile numbers that are originating SPAM text messages, we have confirmed with industry sources and multiple users who have faced such blockade.

Sources at PTA told us that this service suspension is meant for those who are SMS spamming for commercial purposes.

While requesting anonymity a source at PTA revealed that any mobile user who is sending identical text message to over 200 users in less than 15 minutes, that is same SMS string sent to over 200 numbers in 15 minutes or below, is going to face service suspension.

PTA sources explained that this step is being taken to make sure that mobile phone usage remains SPAM free.

Mobile operators, when asked for comment, said that they have mechanism in place to identify Bulk or SPAM text messages. They said that such service suspension can’t be undone by operators, instead a complaint is supposed to be registered at PTA’s toll free complaint number 0800-55055 or through email at complaints@pta.gov.pk. Though complaint processing time for service restoration may take weeks, depending on number of requests PTA receives in certain duration.

Here is a suspension notice being sent to such customers via SMS:

PTA has been working for long to curb SMS spamming. Authority even encouraged mobile phone users to report such SMS spammers so that stern action could be taken against them.

However, if sources are to be believed than this suspension criteria of 200 identical messages in less than 15 minutes could hit non-commercial but heavy SMS users as well. It maybe recalled that Pakistani mobile phone users are usually power text users, whoexchanged 176 billion text messages in 2010.

Blank messages will be considered identical too. Sending blank messages to a single or multiple numbers can cause service suspension too.

On a related note, PTA should also figure out a way to confine mobile companies fromsending promotional messages (usually 4-10 SMS per day) to its customers.

Mobile phone jamming devices, which aretermed illegal by PTA, are being used by car lifters when they break into a car to jam vehicle tracking devices.

During interrogation of a car lifter, who was arrested in Chakwal recently, made shocking revelations by disclosing that they use a mobile phone jamming device to jam the tracking devices installed by vehicle tracking companies to track the present location of cars.

It maybe recalled that vehicles tracking companies keep real time track of cars/vehicles through a cellular SIM and GPS data retrieved from devices installed in cars. These devices stop transmitting data to server when a mobile phone jammer is switched on.

Hence, a mobile phone jammer – worth Rs. 50,000 or less – can make your tracking device useless posing an ultimate security threat for your cars’ safety, despite whatever your vehicle tracking company claims.

Abbas Khan, a car lifter arrested in Chakwal, revealed that they use car lighter battery to power the mobile phone jammer. This helps them keep the jammer switched on throughout their journey until the car is reached to a safe house (usually somewhere in Peshawar) where tracker is searched and physically removed from the car.

One may wonder, how to secure a car especially when tracking devices can be disabled so easily.

You can watch the complete video below to know how exactly car lifters steal a car. Mobile jammer part is shown at 8:20 seconds.

Complete report is shown below: