Nowshera-Kidnapping of young girls Increase Parents Quit..

1. 2. 7.

Geek Week Planned in Lahore on March 30th

The ACM Society of FAST-NU, Lahore is organizing the 1st International Geek Week from 30^th March to 1^st April, 2012 with prize money of more than Rs. 450,000.

Geek Week is likely to be one of the biggest Computer Science and Information Technology extravaganzas in South Asia.

It is the 1^st Indo-Pak event being organized by the collaboration of Pakistani and Indian students in the field of IT.

The Pakistani and Indian chapters of ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) are conducting this event simultaneously in five different universities. Students and professionals will bring forth their work and well-known researchers and academicians have been invited to judge the competition.

This session has many competitions. These 3 being its biggest highlights:

• Asia Cup: An International Distributed Programming Competition
• DevFest: 24hr App Development Contest (being held for the first time in Pakistan).
• Custom PC: Opportunity to exhibit the customized machines.

GEEK WEEK would be held in collaboration with 3 Pakistani ACM chapters in different institutions in Pakistan including Fast-NUCES and 2 Indian ACM Student Chapters. The institutions collaborating for GEEK WEEK 2012 are:

• NUCES ACM Lahore, Pakistan
• PUCIT-ACM Lahore, Pakistan
• GCU-ACM Lahore, Pakistan
• Indian Inst. of Tech/ New Delhi ACM , India
• SVCE-ACM, Chennai, India

The occasion will consist of the following competitions.

• Asia Cup
• Gaming contest
• Development Fest
• Custom PC
• Technology showcase
• ACM Logo Designs

Complete details on Geek Week are available here: http://www.nuces-acm.org/

1. 2. 7.

New SIMs to be Posted to Postal Addresses : Rehman Malik

A new revelation has been made by Mr. Rehman Malik, the Minister Interior, also notorious for issuing useless and senseless statements, when he was yesterday found saying that PTA would be directed to dispatch every new SIM card to the subscriber’s home/office addresses from May 1st (without clarifying the year, but we are supposing he meant 2012).

Mr. Malik disclosed this at a meeting with members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) in Karachi.

Telecom industry is clueless of the development, neither Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has received any orders regarding the issue.

Mr. Malik is largely known for issuing random statements about telecom industry every other month and then doing nothing about it. Here are few examples of Mr. Malik’s statements which were never materialized:

• Issue Only One SIM per One CNIC: Rahman Malik
• SMS may get blocked in Pakistan: Rehman Malik
• MNP to Get Banned in Pakistan: Rehman Malik
• Google Administrator in Pakistan to be Arrested: Rehman Malik

It merits mentioning here that this is not the first time Mr. Rehman Malik has thought of asking PTA to send new SIMs at subscribers’ postal addresses. It was July 2010, when he last issued exactly similar verdict – but again, it was never implemented.

1. 2. 7.

PTI New President Javed Hashmi

Lahore: Senior Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf leader Javed Hashmi has been appointed as President of the party.

The decision was announced during a press conference attended by Imran Khan and other senior party leaders on Monday.

Speaking on the occasion, Hashmi said that Imran Khan is fighting against corruption. He said he would standby Khan in his struggle for stability of democracy.

He said that Pakistan Democratic Party had also been merged in the Tehrik-e-Insaf.

1. 2. 7.

Vote Verification via SMS Served 4.5 Million Requests in 2 Weeks

Over 4.5 million citizens have so far verified their records of vote through SMS servicewhich was launched from March 1 to facilitate citizens to verify their vote registration and particulars in the voters lists.

Deputy Chairman National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), Tariq Malik yesterday told APP that Mobilink, being the largest mobile phone operator is leading in term of checking vote verification through SMS, as around 1.44 million eligible voters have utilized its network.

Telenor is second as far as using the particular service is concerned. Around 1.282 million voters have so far checked the status of their votes through its network. Ufone is third in a row with 980,072 SMS, Warid with 448,438 and Zong with 392,816.

Tariq Malik said Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in collaboration with NADRA and mobile phone operators launched the world’s biggest short message service (SMS) for 83.2 million Pakistani voters besides displaying new electoral rolls across the country.

He said on sending at short code 8300 CNIC number (without dashes), a voters gets an SMS with the information of his/her electoral area name in Urdu language, where she/he is registered to vote, including tehsil and district. Exact Block code number per Pakistan Census Organization is also displayed with serial number in the respective voters list.

Mr. Malik appreciated the cooperation of mobile companies in this historic move leading towards ensuring free and fair elections. This is the initial phase and cellular companies will design more strategies to encourage citizens while with the passage of time.

1. 2. 7.

Water Scandal Pakistan Vs India

1. 2. 7.

Noshara: NADRA Uneducated Staff Creating Problems for Peoples

1. 2. 7.

Authorities decide to demolish Osama Bin Ladin compound Bilal Town Abbottabad

Abbottabad: Authorities have decided to demolish compound of Osama Bin Laden where al-Qaeda chief was killed in a US raid on May 2, 2011.

According to a private television report, it was decided to demolish while heavy machinery have been reached to the spot.

The report said that the first floor of the compound have been demolished and spot lights have also been install at around Bilal Town.

The report further said that security officials was monitoring the situation and entrance of general public in the area was completely barred.

Since the incident of May 2, the compound was controlled by the security agencies and no one was allowed to enter in the compound.

On the other hand government officials neither confirming nor denying the reports.

1. 2. 7.

Obama apologizes to Afghanistan over Quran burnings

President Barack Obama has written a letter to his Afghan counterpart apologizing for the burning of copies of the Quran at a NATO military base in the country. Two U.S. soldiers were also shot dead Thursday at a protest about the desecration of the holy books.

1. 2. 7.

India Blocks Songs.PK Website

Through court orders, access to Songs.PK – a notoriously popular website for pirated music – has been blocked throughout India on all ISPs, following a petition filed by a music company and two industry bodies.

Songs.PK is largely known for allowing its visitors to download free Indian and Pakistani music without having redistribution rights.

It merits mentioning here that Songs.PK is operated by a Pakistani webmaster. Website receives millions of hits per month and has global alexa ranking of 891 (as of today).

Website claims to have huge range of music audio files covering over 90 percent of all bollywood and Pakistani music, freely available for download.

Reportedly, Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL)– a UK based licensing company, Indian Music Industry (IMI) and Sagarika Pvt. Ltd had filed a petition in Calcutta High Court for banning the website for violating copyrights of hundreds of thousands music audios.

High Court has ordered all major internet service providers in India to block the access to Songs.PK through DNS name blocking, IP address blocking via routers and DPI based URL blocking.

Music companies in Pakistan have recently geared up to curb pirated music websites, which may lead to a ban of such websites in Pakistan too.

1. 2. 7.

Is America wants to divide Pakistan??? کیا امریکہ پاکستان کو تقسیم کرنا چاہتا ہے؟

نیویارک ٹائمز نے جنوبی ایشیا کا ایک ایسا نقشہ شائع کیا ہے کہ جس میں پاکستان صرف صوبہ سندھ اور پنجاب پر مشتمل ہے۔

معروف امریکی اخبار نیو یارک ٹائمزنے جنوبی ایشیاء کے ایک نیا نقشہ شائع کیا ہے۔ اس نقشے میں پاکستان کے شمالی قبائلی علاقے اور صوبہ سرحد کو افغانستان میں شامل کیا گیا ہے جبکہ بلوچستان کو ایک آزاد ریاست کے طور پر دکھایا گیا ہے۔ اس طرح اس نقشے میں پاکستان کا علاقہ بہت محدود ہو گیا ہے۔ دراصل اس نقشے کا پس منظرپرانا ہے۔ جون سن دو ہزارچھ میں Ralph Peters نامی ایک شخص نے امریکہ کے معروف جریدے Armed Forces Journal میں ایک آرٹیکل شائع کیا تھا جس کا عنوان تھا Blood Borders :How a better Middeleast would look اس میں ایران افغانستان اور پاکستان کا ایک نیا نقشہ پیش کیا گیا۔ اس نقشے میں پاکستان محض صوبہ سندھ اور پنجاب پرمشتمل ہے۔ جبکہ بلوچستان کو آزاد اورشمالی علاقوں اورسرحد کو افغانستان کا حصہ دکھایا گیا ہے۔ اب یہی نقشہ امریکی اخبار نیویارک ٹائمز نے چھاپا۔ خود نیو یارک ٹائمزکے مطابق اس نقشے کی اشاعت کے بعد پاکستان کے مختلف حلقوں میں بیچینی کی لہر دوڑ گئی ہے اور امریکیوں کے اس نقشے کے بعد پاکستانی فوجی افسران سمیت پاکستانی باشندوں پریہ حقیقت کھل گئی ہے کہ امریکہ مسلم دنیاء کی واحد نیوکلئیرطاقت کو توڑنا چاہتا ہے۔ معروف پاکستانی تجزیہ نگار طلعت مسعود کے مطابق ’بھارت کے ساتھ غیرفوجی نیوکلئیرمعاہدہ کر کہ امریکہ نے خطے کا ایٹمی منظرنامہ مکمل طور پربدل دیا ہے، پاکستان امریکہ کی بھارت اورافغانستان کے ساتھ بڑھتی ہوئی قربت سے بھی شدید پریشانی ہے۔

دوسری جانب امریکا کے نو منتخب صدر باراک اوباما نے افغان صدرحامد کرزئی کو افغانستان میں امریکی تعاون میں اضافے کا یقین دلایا ہے۔ افغان صدرکے ساتھ ٹیلی فون پر بات کرتے ہوئے اوبامہ نے کہا کہ انکی اولین ترجیح خطے میں دھشت گردی کے خلاف جنگ ہوگی۔ اوباما کے ان بیانات اور امریکا افغانستان تعلقات میں مزید قربت پاکستان کے لئے کیا معنے رکھتی ہے۔ ایک طرف پاکستان کے شمال مغربی علاقوں میں مسلسل مبینہ امریکی میزائل حملوں کے سبب عوام میں امریکہ مخالف احساسات میں اضافہ ہو رہا ہے تو دوسری جانب پاکستان کے مختلف حلقوں کی طرف سے یہ سوال اٹھایا جا رہا ہے کہ آیا اسلام آباد حکومت کی طرف سے رہ رہ کر امریکی حملوں کی مذمت اوراس کے خلاف بیان بازی میں کوئی صداقت پائی جاتی ہے؟ اس بارے میں نیو یارک سے ڈوؤچے ویلے کے ساتھ بات چیت کرتے ہوئے اقوام متحدہ کے پریس ترجمان اور ڈان کے نامہ نگار مسعود حیدر نے کہا کہ پاکستان کے شمالی علاقوں میں امریکی حملے اور کارروائیاں صدر زرداری کی اجازت سے ہو رہی ہیں۔ مسعود حیدرکے بقول’امریکیوں کا یہ کہنا ہے کہ پاکستانی حکومت نے امریکہ کے ساتھ یہ طے کیا ہوا ہے امریکہ اپنے حملے جاری رکھے اور پاکستانی حکومت اس پر صرف مذمتی بیان جاری کرے گی۔

How a better Middle East would look

BY RALPH PETERS

International borders are never completely just. But the degree of injustice they inflict upon those whom frontiers force together or separate makes an enormous difference — often the difference between freedom and oppression, tolerance and atrocity, the rule of law and terrorism, or even peace and war.

The most arbitrary and distorted borders in the world are in Africa and the Middle East. Drawn by self-interested Europeans (who have had sufficient trouble defining their own frontiers), Africa’s borders continue to provoke the deaths of millions of local inhabitants. But the unjust borders in the Middle East — to borrow from Churchill — generate more trouble than can be consumed locally.

While the Middle East has far more problems than dysfunctional borders alone — from cultural stagnation through scandalous inequality to deadly religious extremism — the greatest taboo in striving to understand the region’s comprehensive failure isn’t Islam but the awful-but-sacrosanct international boundaries worshipped by our own diplomats.

Of course, no adjustment of borders, however draconian, could make every minority in the Middle East happy. In some instances, ethnic and religious groups live intermingled and have intermarried. Elsewhere, reunions based on blood or belief might not prove quite as joyous as their current proponents expect. The boundaries projected in the maps accompanying this article redress the wrongs suffered by the most significant “cheated” population groups, such as the Kurds, Baluch and Arab Shia, but still fail to account adequately for Middle Eastern Christians, Bahais, Ismailis, Naqshbandis and many another numerically lesser minorities. And one haunting wrong can never be redressed with a reward of territory: the genocide perpetrated against the Armenians by the dying Ottoman Empire.

Yet, for all the injustices the borders re-imagined here leave unaddressed, without such major boundary revisions, we shall never see a more peaceful Middle East.

Even those who abhor the topic of altering borders would be well-served to engage in an exercise that attempts to conceive a fairer, if still imperfect, amendment of national boundaries between the Bosporus and the Indus. Accepting that international statecraft has never developed effective tools — short of war — for readjusting faulty borders, a mental effort to grasp the Middle East’s “organic” frontiers nonetheless helps us understand the extent of the difficulties we face and will continue to face. We are dealing with colossal, man-made deformities that will not stop generating hatred and violence until they are corrected.

As for those who refuse to “think the unthinkable,” declaring that boundaries must not change and that’s that, it pays to remember that boundaries have never stopped changing through the centuries. Borders have never been static, and many frontiers, from Congo through Kosovo to the Caucasus, are changing even now (as ambassadors and special representatives avert their eyes to study the shine on their wingtips).

Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works.

Begin with the border issue most sensitive to American readers: For Israel to have any hope of living in reasonable peace with its neighbors, it will have to return to its pre-1967 borders — with essential local adjustments for legitimate security concerns. But the issue of the territories surrounding Jerusalem, a city stained with thousands of years of blood, may prove intractable beyond our lifetimes. Where all parties have turned their god into a real-estate tycoon, literal turf battles have a tenacity unrivaled by mere greed for oil wealth or ethnic squabbles. So let us set aside this single overstudied issue and turn to those that are studiously ignored.

The most glaring injustice in the notoriously unjust lands between the Balkan Mountains and the Himalayas is the absence of an independent Kurdish state. There are between 27 million and 36 million Kurds living in contiguous regions in the Middle East (the figures are imprecise because no state has ever allowed an honest census). Greater than the population of present-day Iraq, even the lower figure makes the Kurds the world’s largest ethnic group without a state of its own. Worse, Kurds have been oppressed by every government controlling the hills and mountains where they’ve lived since Xenophon’s day.

The U.S. and its coalition partners missed a glorious chance to begin to correct this injustice after Baghdad’s fall. A Frankenstein’s monster of a state sewn together from ill-fitting parts, Iraq should have been divided into three smaller states immediately. We failed from cowardice and lack of vision, bullying Iraq’s Kurds into supporting the new Iraqi government — which they do wistfully as a quid pro quo for our good will. But were a free plebiscite to be held, make no mistake: Nearly 100 percent of Iraq’s Kurds would vote for independence.

As would the long-suffering Kurds of Turkey, who have endured decades of violent military oppression and a decades-long demotion to “mountain Turks” in an effort to eradicate their identity. While the Kurdish plight at Ankara’s hands has eased somewhat over the past decade, the repression recently intensified again and the eastern fifth of Turkey should be viewed as occupied territory. As for the Kurds of Syria and Iran, they, too, would rush to join an independent Kurdistan if they could. The refusal by the world’s legitimate democracies to champion Kurdish independence is a human-rights sin of omission far worse than the clumsy, minor sins of commission that routinely excite our media. And by the way: A Free Kurdistan, stretching from Diyarbakir through Tabriz, would be the most pro-Western state between Bulgaria and Japan.

A just alignment in the region would leave Iraq’s three Sunni-majority provinces as a truncated state that might eventually choose to unify with a Syria that loses its littoral to a Mediterranean-oriented Greater Lebanon: Phoenecia reborn. The Shia south of old Iraq would form the basis of an Arab Shia State rimming much of the Persian Gulf. Jordan would retain its current territory, with some southward expansion at Saudi expense. For its part, the unnatural state of Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan.

A root cause of the broad stagnation in the Muslim world is the Saudi royal family’s treatment of Mecca and Medina as their fiefdom. With Islam’s holiest shrines under the police-state control of one of the world’s most bigoted and oppressive regimes — a regime that commands vast, unearned oil wealth — the Saudis have been able to project their Wahhabi vision of a disciplinarian, intolerant faith far beyond their borders. The rise of the Saudis to wealth and, consequently, influence has been the worst thing to happen to the Muslim world as a whole since the time of the Prophet, and the worst thing to happen to Arabs since the Ottoman (if not the Mongol) conquest.

While non-Muslims could not effect a change in the control of Islam’s holy cities, imagine how much healthier the Muslim world might become were Mecca and Medina ruled by a rotating council representative of the world’s major Muslim schools and movements in an Islamic Sacred State — a sort of Muslim super-Vatican — where the future of a great faith might be debated rather than merely decreed. True justice — which we might not like — would also give Saudi Arabia’s coastal oil fields to the Shia Arabs who populate that subregion, while a southeastern quadrant would go to Yemen. Confined to a rump Saudi Homelands Independent Territory around Riyadh, the House of Saud would be capable of far less mischief toward Islam and the world.

Iran, a state with madcap boundaries, would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today’s Afghanistan — a region with a historical and linguistic affinity for Persia. Iran would, in effect, become an ethnic Persian state again, with the most difficult question being whether or not it should keep the port of Bandar Abbas or surrender it to the Arab Shia State.

What Afghanistan would lose to Persia in the west, it would gain in the east, as Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier tribes would be reunited with their Afghan brethren (the point of this exercise is not to draw maps as we would like them but as local populations would prefer them). Pakistan, another unnatural state, would also lose its Baluch territory to Free Baluchistan. The remaining “natural” Pakistan would lie entirely east of the Indus, except for a westward spur near Karachi.

The city-states of the United Arab Emirates would have a mixed fate — as they probably will in reality. Some might be incorporated in the Arab Shia State ringing much of the Persian Gulf (a state more likely to evolve as a counterbalance to, rather than an ally of, Persian Iran). Since all puritanical cultures are hypocritical, Dubai, of necessity, would be allowed to retain its playground status for rich debauchees. Kuwait would remain within its current borders, as would Oman.

In each case, this hypothetical redrawing of boundaries reflects ethnic affinities and religious communalism — in some cases, both. Of course, if we could wave a magic wand and amend the borders under discussion, we would certainly prefer to do so selectively. Yet, studying the revised map, in contrast to the map illustrating today’s boundaries, offers some sense of the great wrongs borders drawn by Frenchmen and Englishmen in the 20th century did to a region struggling to emerge from the humiliations and defeats of the 19th century.

Correcting borders to reflect the will of the people may be impossible. For now. But given time — and the inevitable attendant bloodshed — new and natural borders will emerge. Babylon has fallen more than once.

Meanwhile, our men and women in uniform will continue to fight for security from terrorism, for the prospect of democracy and for access to oil supplies in a region that is destined to fight itself. The current human divisions and forced unions between Ankara and Karachi, taken together with the region’s self-inflicted woes, form as perfect a breeding ground for religious extremism, a culture of blame and the recruitment of terrorists as anyone could design. Where men and women look ruefully at their borders, they look enthusiastically for enemies.

From the world’s oversupply of terrorists to its paucity of energy supplies, the current deformations of the Middle East promise a worsening, not an improving, situation. In a region where only the worst aspects of nationalism ever took hold and where the most debased aspects of religion threaten to dominate a disappointed faith, the U.S., its allies and, above all, our armed forces can look for crises without end. While Iraq may provide a counterexample of hope — if we do not quit its soil prematurely — the rest of this vast region offers worsening problems on almost every front.

If the borders of the greater Middle East cannot be amended to reflect the natural ties of blood and faith, we may take it as an article of faith that a portion of the bloodshed in the region will continue to be our own.

• • •

WHO WINS, WHO LOSES

Winners —

Afghanistan

Arab Shia State

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Free Baluchistan

Free Kurdistan

Iran

Islamic Sacred State

Jordan

Lebanon

Yemen

•

Losers —

Afghanistan

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Kuwait

Pakistan

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Syria

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

West Bank

1. 2. 7.

PTA to Auction Spectrums of 14 telecom Regions on May 3

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will award all available spectrum to existing Fixed Local Loop (FLL), Wireless Local Loop (WLL) and Class Value Added Services (CVAS) licensees through region-wise auction process to be held on May 3 2012.

The authority has set base prices of $25,000 to $27.4million for frequency bands of 1.9 MHz and 3.5 MHz separately for 14 different telecom regions that aimed to be awarded to different existing telecom operators, Information Memorandum (IM) issued by PTA said.

PTA has fixed annual spectrum charges from $10,000 to 75,000 for different telecom regions depending on capacity and potential areas of business.

Tentative Auction Schedule:

• Publication of IM: 14th Feb
• Begin date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI): 15th Feb
• Pre-Bid Conference: 22nd Mar
• Closure of queries: 26th Mar
• End Date for submission of EoI/ Application: 30th Mar
• Response of queries from PTA: 2nd Apr
• Qualification of bidders: before auction 11th Apr
• Receipt of Bid Earnest Money in PTA’s Bank account; 19th Apr
• Auction 3rd May

The award of spectrums is carried out for improving services of telecommunication sector with the broader objective of increasing investment and competition.

According to the terms and conditions, a nationwide license holder can bid separately for spectrum the 14 telecom regions or less, while a provincial license holder can bid for all telecom regions within the licensed province or less. The licenses will be given for 15 years period to both types of operators.

Interested companies may apply for available block(s) in 1.9 GHz and in 3.5 GHz for their operating telecom regions. If a CVAS licensee applies for a block in more than one designated band(s) in a telecom region, the applicant must submit business plan, financial plan, technical plan and rollout information in respect of each such band.

The bidding company can bid for any/all block(s) in any/all telecom region(s) simultaneously, against the submitted the Bid Earnest Money.

A bidder will not be allowed to bid twice for the same block in a given region in any one round. After each round, bid amount will be announced and the highest bidder’s details will be recorded (Manually/Electronically) before the next round.

The successful bidding companies shall deposit 50 percent of the auction winning price after adjustment of the Bid Earnest Money within thirty (30) working days. The remaining 50 percent of the price shall be deposited in ten equal installments over the next ten years.

The license/spectrum shall only be issued after 50 percent payment of the auction winning price is made within 30 working days from the auction date in dollars, PTA’s IM stated.

You can download PTA’s Information Memorandum by clicking this link (PDF File – 4.7 MB)

1. 2. 7.

Youtube 7 Years Completed Today!

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos.[3]

The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5[4]technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, VEVO, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.[5]

Unregistered users can watch videos, while registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain offensive content are available only to registered users at least 18 years old.

1. 2. 7.

Trakker NAV: Digital Navigation System for Pakistan

A maze of streets, roads, underpasses, overheads and traffic can leave the best of drivers and navigators baffled in Pakistan. Trakker NAV Digital Navigation system by TPL Trakker solves that problem for commuters.

TPL Trakker, a fully owned enterprise of Trakker Holdings, has launched Pakistan first ever digital navigation system. The system boasts to provide the most comprehensive geographical coverage in Pakistan with the most accurate house address searching system available in the country.

TPL Trakker

TPL Trakker Limited is a joint venture with DigiCore of South Africa and responsible for markets in the Middle East & South Asian (MESA) region. TPL Trakker claims to be Pakistan’s first and region’s largest vehicle tracking and fleet management service provider. The company provides a majority of services including Stolen Vehicle recovery and Fleet management, Trakker NAV is its latest product.

What is Trakker NAV?

Trakker NAV is a voice guided GPS Navigation system which features the latest and most detailed maps of Pakistan and provides a vast coverage of more than a 100 cities and highways all over Pakistan. The system showcases more than 800,000 points of interest which means that that there are approximately 800,000 points on the system that can be searched.

TPL Trakker says that features such as House address search took the company several years for development since Pakistan lacks any comprehensive digital maps library which could have been used for the Trakker NAV system.

Mobile Apps:

Mobile apps have been developed in collaboration with Sygic, which is the leading provider of navigation solutions world over. If any of the readers has ever used Sygic for handheld devices you would know how amazing this software is.

The software which downloads onto your smart phone (android or iOS) can provide you with directions from your current location to the destination of choice. The software also provides search capabilities through which you can search destinations. Also the software is voice enabled and provides turn by turn navigation, guiding its users exactly what route to take and which turn to turn.

The most amazing part of the Sygic platform though is that it does not require an active data connection to search or navigate. The software downloads the map you require onto your phone and that is only when a data connection is required.

Though map size for Pakistan is humongous, 72 MB in fact. Probably cutting the map into cities would have benefited the users a lot. Of course no point of downloading the map on GPRS/EDGE, WiFi is the only option I would say.

Downloaded maps correlate and plots your current location onto the phone. Once you start moving the software utilizes the GPS on the smart phone to coordinate by coordinate update your location onto the device thus giving you exact coordinates as to where you are and your distance and route required to your destination.

Value add on services like these can lay the foundation for future services like live traffic condition update and can further help in better traffic management in major cities of Pakistan.

For More:

• TPL Tracker Website: http://www.trakkernav.com/
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1. 2. 7.

Vote Checking Through SMS from March 1st

Eligible voters will soon be able verify the status of their votes in the new computerized voter lists prepared by Election Commission of Pakistan by just sending an via mobile phones from anywhere, any time across the country, reported Daily Times citing an official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

This long awaited service is going to see the light of the day on March 1st, 2012, said the report. After the service is launched, registered voters would be able to check the status of their votes and particulars through short messaging services (SMS).

How to check Vote Status:

• SMS your CNIC to 8300
• You will get a reply with your vote status
• Service Charges: Rs. 2 plus tax

Details suggest that sending an SMS with Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) number to 8300 will subsequently receive a message of around 160 characters in Urdu.

It will have the name, village/city, tehsil and district of the particular voter, location (electoral area) and serial number of vote registered in the preliminary electoral rolls.

The house number of voters will be kept confidential to ensure privacy and avoid misuse of the service.

After the introduction of the new service, it would be the responsibility of every eligible voter to make sure that his/her vote had been registered and to report any discrepancy to the ECP, said the media report.

1. 2. 7.

Cyber Crime: FIA arrests UET Lahore student

Peshawar: Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) has arrested a student of University of Engineering and Technology (UET) software engineering student for his alleged involvement in cyber crimes.

Sources said that the student, Muhammad Amir, resident of Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, was involved in blackmailing and demanding ransom from girls through fake email addresses.

Case has been registered against the student under cyber crimes regulations, the sources said.

1. 2. 7.