Pakistan companies won regional awards in Huawei Middle East Partner Summit

 

Islamabad, JUN 13: Huawei Middle East Partner Summit is an annual event which focusses on celebrating the success of the partners across the Region. Huawei has always valued and appreciated the work our esteemed partners put into conducting business and focused on giving the credit where it’s due, when it comes to acknowledging the trust, effort and sheer hard work of our business partners and their resources.  Partners are the extended arms for Huawei and have brought quality in the business they conduct and will be an epitome of pride for Huawei.

Steven Yi, President Huawei Middle East and Africa Area stated on the occasion that;“2022 is a critical time in Enterprise Networking. Cloud-network Synergy is becoming essential for providing ubiquitous intelligence for every enterprise”. 

Alaa Elshimy, Managing Director and Senior Vice President Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Middle East stated on the occasion that;

“Huawei hopes to grow the whole pie with its partner, enabling them to reap the most benefits from the new value chain. For this reason, our goal goes beyond winning alone: We aim to win together, with our partners and our customers”.

Outstanding partners from Pakistan were invited to the Middle East Partner summit including AppInSnap, CMC, Hew Horizon, Wateen solutions, Ptcl, Transworld to appreciate and celebrate their success of the past and to motivate them to keep up with amazing work to unlock new potentials and reach new heights of success.

Speaking of Success, AppinSnap has been the Excellent Huawei partner this year by unlocking Silver Partner status in just 5 months and Gold partner status in just 8 months. AppinSnap team have showed great support in Huawei and have complete trust in Huawei Products & Solution and their abilities to solve organizational tech challenges. AppinSnap has managed to secure some fascinating deals in the FSI sector of Pakistan.  The journey to emerge from an ISV to a competent SI for Huawei in financial services industry and commercial market and developing partner lead pipeline and with a very high conversion ratio is just amazing. Hence, winning themselves the “Pakistan Partner of the Year Award”.

Mr. Farhan, the CIO of AppInSnap stated on the occasion that;“I, being the CIO of AppinSnap, always believe that small opportunities are always the beginning of great achievements.  Like our trusted Supplier, Huawei; we strive to be undeniably good”.

Ziad Aslam CEO NERA Telecommunications stated on the occasion that;  "It is really appreciable how Huawei invests time in their partners and how hospitable their management is.  We had very productive networking at the event and especially the meeting with Mr. Gao will definitely help propel our business cooperation with Huawei” 

Mehboob Ahmed Khawaja CFO CMC Pakistan attended and stated on the behalf of CMC that;

“Excellent and well organized event. Presentations covered a wide range of topics and  yet were all connected by our common business interests. We as CMC are so glad to associate with Huawei”.

NewHorizon’s COO, Qaiser Sarwar stated on the occasion that; “It was nice to be part of two insightful events hosted by Huawei, IP carnival was thoroughly exciting and the information regarding new products and fast delivery was the highlight of it. In CXO forum, it was interesting to know Huawei's deep reach for partner eco system growth.

New Horizon is excited to take the part in growth of business with Huawei as integral part of our business plan”.

Huawei has the privilege to work with some great distributors as well and relies on the solid support they have always provided.  At the Middle East Partner summit, EZY technologies won the Pakistan Distributor of the year award and Mindware won the Emerging Distributor of the year Award.Both these organizations have played a key role in making the deals come to life with our partners and have always worked side by side with Huawei in achieving the business goals.

Lastly, 2021 Tiger program winners Kashif Ali (HCIE), Techaccess Pakistan and Firdous Khan, CMC  represented at the HC certification experience sharing session.

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Experts call for accelerated efforts to meet SDGs for sustainable progress

 

ISLAMABAD, JUN 13: In order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), representatives of civil society at a consultation session have called for accelerated efforts to meet these goals within the stipulated timeframe as it would ensure sustainable progress.

They highlighted and discussed the bottlenecks, lacunas and challenges in the budgets, policies and strategies towards achieving the SDGs.

Purpose of the consultation, organized jointly by Awaz CDS and UGOOD in Islamabad, was to review the progress on government’s official Voluntary National Review (VNR) through Peoples Scorecard and collect input from the civil society organizations on the subject.

The event was part of the series of consultations which will be organized countrywide to gather information from informed civil society about the government’s performance on achieving the SDGs.

Around 35 members from civil society organizations (CSOs) participated in the consultation, mostly from organizations led by women, youth, transgender, people living with disabilities and minority groups. The consultation was supported by Sightsavers Pakistan, VSO and A4SD.

In his opening remarks, CEO UGOOD Syed Ishtiaq Gilani appreciated the participants for attending the consultation and hoped their valuable findings would help in shaping the accurate data base on SDGs. 

Participating in the consultations, Country Director Sightsavers Munazza Gillani praised Awaz CDS-PDA and UGOOD for arranging such an inclusive event representing all, PLWDs, trans genders, youth and men and women.

She shared Sightsavers’ initiatives and collaborations with both CSOs and government to make the entire SDGs process inclusive. She emphasized on inclusion as well as availability of PLWDs disaggregated data for all goals.

Chief Executive Awaz CDS Pakistan Zia ur Rehman gave a detailed orientation about the event’s objectives and deliberations. He informed the participants about AwazCDS and Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA), on behalf of civil society, are in the process of developing a spotlight report on SDGs parallel to government’s official VNR report which it intends to present in the UN. 

Similarly, the spotlight report which will be developed through gathering information from people and depicting real, on ground situation with regard to performance and progress of Pakistan on SDGs at the same forum, he said.

Zia ur Rehman also apprised the audience that the process of data collection was a two-pronged activity, an online survey which has been uploaded on PDA website and a series of consultations in provincial capitals and regions i.e. AJK and GB.

He shared that AwazCDS is engaging with civil society through people’s scorecard to reach out to informed citizens who are unable to contribute to national or official VNR report process. The spotlight report will collect voices of citizens to achieving SDGs whereas the official process relies on secondary data.

He expressed concern over the delay by the government in making the VNR public and called for speedy completion of this process.

He gave a quick rundown of the online survey and the indicators which would be used to assess specific goals CSOs are working on. He shared the link and urged the audience to fill up the online survey as well.

An hour-long group work was also conducted where findings, views and assessment of the discussants were presented. Overall they depicted dismal picture of performance of the government on SDGs they are working on. The information gathered in this consultation will be combined with the findings of planned consultations and consolidated spotlight report will be developed.

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Shadab Khan stars as Pakistan clinch clean-sweep of West Indies

 

Multan, JUN 13: Allrounder Shadab Khan hit a fighting half-century before taking four wickets to anchor Pakistan’s 53-run win over the West Indies in the third and final day-night international in Multan which was interrupted by a dust storm.

Shadab hit 86 to lift Pakistan to 269-9 after unlikely West Indian hero Nicholas Pooran grabbed four wickets to leave the home team struggling at 117-5.

Opener Imamul Haq scored a brilliant 68-ball 62 but there was a rare failure for world number one ODI batsman Babar Azam who fell for one off three balls.

Shadab’s leg-spin then fetched 4-62 to dismiss the visitors for 216 in 37.2 overs, giving Pakistan 30 invaluable points in the ODI Super League, a qualification round for next year’s World Cup in India.

The 3-0 clean-sweep lifted Pakistan to 90 points, fourth in the 13-team ODI League table while the West Indies are fifth with 80.

A dust storm during Pakistan’s innings reduced the match to 48 overs-a-side but that could not stop Pakistan from taking a tenth consecutive ODI series win over the West Indies.

Pakistan won the first match by five wickets and the second by 120 runs, also played in Multan.

Shadab dismissed Keacy Carty (33), Rovman Powell (ten) and top-scorer Akeal Hosein who made a career-best 37-ball 60 with six sixes and two boundaries.

When Hosein and Romario Shepherd added 49 for the eighth wicket the visitors threatened a comeback but both fell within 12 runs to end a miserable series.

Opener Shai Hope (21), Shamarh Brooks (18), Pooran (11) and Powell got good starts but fell to rash shots.

Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz had Brooks and Keemo Paul (21) to finish with 2-56.

Earlier, it was part-time bowler Pooran who hit Pakistan hard.

Pooran turned his arm over only for the second time in his 43-match ODI career to take 4-48 after Pakistan slumped from 85 without loss to 117-5, having won the toss and opted to bat.

The innings seemed to have fallen apart with Babar Azam’s rare failure for one but Shadab wielded his bat to the best effect.

Shadab hit three sixes and four boundaries off 78 balls before being bowled in the last over.

He improved upon his 54 against New Zealand in Wellington in 2018.

Sensing the Multan stadium pitch helping spin, Pooran brought himself up after Fakhar Zaman (35) and Haq gave Pakistan a solid start.

Pooran chipped in with the wickets of Zaman, Haq, Mohammad Rizwan (11) and Mohammad Haris (nought) off just 25 balls, having never taken more than one wicket in his first-class career.

Haq smashed seven boundaries and a six off 68 balls for his 14th ODI half-century. He became only the second batter to score seven or more fifties in successive ODIs.

Former Pakistan great Javed Miandad, celebrating his 65th birthday on Sunday, set the record for most fifties in successive ODIs with nine, scored in 1987.

In between Pooran’s destruction, Azam fell leg-before to spinner Hayden Walsh, having hit a century and 77 in the first two matches.

Shadab added 84 with Khushdil Shah (34) for the sixth wicket and 40 for the eighth with Mohammad Wasim who made six.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (capt), Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Rizwan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Wasim Junior, Hasan Ali, Shahnawaz Dahani

West Indies: Nicholas Pooran (capt), Shai Hope, Shamarh Brooks, Akeal Hosein, Kyle Mayers, Rovman Powell, Keacy Carty, Jayden Seales, Keemo Paul, Romario Shepherd, Hayden Walsh Junior

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

Indian police crack down on protests over anti-Islam remarks

 

NEW DELHI, JUN 12: Indian police cracked down on protests on Sunday that erupted across the country over derogatory remarks against Holy Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Muslims have taken to the streets to protest against anti-Islamic comments made by two members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent week.

Earlier this month, the BJP suspended its spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and expelled another leader, Naveen Kumar Jindal, for their controversial comments about the Prophet (P.B.U.H) that also angered several Muslim countries, causing a massive diplomatic challenge for the Modi government.

Police cases have been filed against the two former BJP officials.

Countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, and Iran, which are key trade partners for India, lodged protests through diplomatic channels and used social media to demand an apology from the government.

India’s foreign ministry said last week that the tweets and comments do not reflect the views of the government.

Clashes over the remarks simmered across the country, as some in the minority Muslim community see them as the latest instance of pressure and humiliation under BJP rule on issues ranging from freedom of worship to the wearing of hijab head scarves.

Two teenagers were killed when police opened fire on protesters in the eastern city of Ranchi last week.

Sporadic riots in northern Uttar Pradesh state led to the arrests of over 300 people.

In the eastern state of West Bengal, authorities enforced an emergency law prohibiting public gatherings in the industrial district of Howrah until June 16. At least 70 people were arrested on charges of rioting and disturbing public order, with Internet services suspended for over 48 hours after the latest communal violence.

In occupied Kashmir, police arrested a youth for posting a video against Nupur Sharma, a former spokesperson of India’s ruling party who had made derogatory remarks about the Prophet (P.B.U.H), officials said on Sunday.

The video, circulated on YouTube, has been withdrawn by authorities as part of a wider attempt to curb religious unrest that has spread across the country.

BJP leaders have issued instructions to several senior members to be “extremely cautious” when talking about religion on public platforms and the government continues to tighten public security. The report also said police raided the home of student leader Afreen Fatima, arresting her father Mohammad Javed, mother and sister. They have accused her father, who is diabetic and needs insulin daily , of “masterminding the protests”.

“First a police party came at around 8:30pm and took away my father and then they came at 11:30pm and detained my mother and sister. Third time they came at 2:30am to detain me but we resisted and since then the policemen have cordoned off our house,” Fatima told.

“We are only women and children at home. We feel cornered and traumatised. The police have asked us to leave the house locked.

“I have no idea where my father, mother and sister are. I am worried about their safety. My father is a diabetic and he needs insulin injection every night.”

Pakistan condemns ‘brutal treatment’ of Muslims protesting in India

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Saturday strongly condemned the “heavy-handed treatment by the Indian authorities of Muslim who were registering a peaceful protest after Friday prayers”.

In a statement issued on June 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that the “indiscriminate and widespread” use of brute force by the Indian authorities across various states in India had resulted in killing of two innocent Muslim protesters and critically injured thirteen others in Ranchi city.

“The footage of Indian forces unabashedly opening fire on unarmed protesters in Ranchi city is horrific beyond belief. This is a new low in the Indian government’s repressive ‘Hindutva’ inspired majoritarian policy aimed at demonizing and persecuting minorities, especially Muslims,” it said.

“Pakistan denounces this shameful treatment of Indian Muslim citizens by the Indian government and expresses its solidarity with the Muslims of India in these testing times.”

The ministry called the situation in the neighbouring country alarming, continuing that despite the global condemnation of the BJP officials’ sacrilegious remarks, the Indian government’s reaction had been muted, while on the other hand the BJP-RSS regime had persisted in its Islamophobic actions and had shamefully chosen to handle public protest with brutal and indiscriminate use of force.

“The Indian Government’s apathy to the grievous situation and the vicious cycle of communal violence may lead to further marginalization of the Indian Muslims,” it warned, urging the international community to take immediate cognisance of the grievously aggravating situation of Islamophobia in India.

India must be held accountable for stifling the rights of the minorities, especially Muslims, and ensure that Muslims living in India are not victimized for practicing their faith and religious beliefs, the ministry added.

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

National Electronic Health Record system holds key to future

 

National Electronic Health Record System Technology exported from Pakistan to US

• Tech advancement may lead to efficient healthcare services

Islamabad, JUN 11: Pakistan’s healthcare system by adopting modern-day techniques and innovative technology, may serve the masses in a much more efficient manner, said healthcare and technology experts while sharing their views during a panel discussion on “Evolution of Healthcare & Education in Pakistan.”  

Experts at the panel discussion organized by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations (KCFR) in collaboration with the Swiss Asian Chamber of Commerce (SACC) at Pakistan’s Pavilion of World Economic Forum in Davos urged the authorities to establish a National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) to provide medical officials access to patients’ medical history whenever they seek medical assistance.  

Eminent healthcare and education experts including Dr. Linda Zangwill, Professor at University of California, Ali Shah Asani, CEO iPath, Dr. Huma Baqai, renowned educationist & Senior Vice Chairperson KCFR, along with Marc Siegel, world’s leading supply-chain expert discussed basic facilities in the healthcare and education sectors of Pakistan.   

Expressing his views on the use of modern technology in the public health sector, iPath CEO, Ali Shah, said that using innovative information technology could improve the performance of health sector manifold. 

He briefed the audience about projects led by his team including the United States. Ali shared some interesting facts and their impact on patients’ care by saying that the lack of Healthcare Data Interoperability and Interchange on sharing patients’ medical records across other caregivers not only increases costs but prolongs their miseries as well as risks their lives. 

He said that it had been very difficult for patients in the United States to get access to their medical records from their doctors, and even healthcare networks lacked sufficient means to share medical records of patients with other healthcare facilities. The problem is amplified if a patient is attended by different healthcare providers across various sites as per specialty.

In such a situation, Ali Shah said that his team launched a Patient Health Record Integration Platform enabling Healthcare Data Interoperability and integration of medical records in a centralized view stored across various Healthcare touch points during patients’ lifetime. Since the doctor has access to complete medical history of patients, it helps them in accurate diagnosis, saves decision time in critical situations and saves costs. The patient might save money by avoiding the repetition of same tests on instructions of his/her new doctor due to unavailability of previous record, while having a detailed and ready-to-observe medical history also saves time. 

Ali Shah urged the authorities in Pakistan to establish a NEHR for efficient healthcare services. He said that such systems can link healthcare records to the CNIC of every citizen and be made accessible to healthcare providers so that every citizen of Pakistan might avail the benefits across the country.

Dr. Linda Zangwill shared her valuable thoughts on this occasion by saying that modern day technologies might become a savior to humanity. 

She said that developing countries by using technologies like Artificial Intelligence were improving their healthcare systems and huge investments were being made in such areas.  

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