Committee for introducing quake resistant infrastructure
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology has stressed the need for introduction of state of the art technologies which could cater to the needs to the time and face market challenges.This observation was made by the committee while having a detailed briefing about the steps taken by the ministry of Information and Technology to provide relief to the earthquake affected people in NWFP and AJ&K.
Junaid I. Khan, President PTCL informed the committee that there were some misperceptions that retrenchment would be made in the permanent and contract staff working in PTCL, CTI and TIP after the privatization. He assured the committee that employees who have been put on the surplus pool would remain on the payroll of PTCL. He, however, informed the committee that only 114 employees who were appointed on contract basis would not be given further extension as per policy. The member of the committee pointed out that TIP had invited tenders for selling two of its plots in Islamabad and Lahore.
The minister of state for information and technology denied having taken any decision regarding the sale of the two plots. He, however, assured the committee that as the issue was of crucial nature, necessary information would be provided to the committee. The committee was also briefed on the damages caused to the infrastructure and network of telecommunication in the earthquake hit areas of NWFP and AJ&K.
It was told that the earthquake had hit the PTCL infrastructure in NWFP causing Rs112.226 million damages to its network and buildings. It was informed that all lines were restored soon after the earthquake. Director General Special Communication Organization (SCO) AJK, briefed the committee about the working and performance of his organization and said that a proposal is under consideration to give exemption of telephone bills for two months in the earthquake hit AJK.
He said that all lines were made operational soon after the earthquake. He disclosed that SCO was working to shift its Microwave Repeater Stations and the station at Danna would be shifted to an alternate location as the decaying of hills was in process. The members were of the view that the ministry of IT should concentrate on developing technology capable of producing quake resistant infrastructure for use in the quake-hit areas. The meeting was also attended by senators Muhammad Amjad Abbas, Engineer Rashid Ahmed, Muhammad Abbas Komaili, and Dr. Muhammad Said, Muhammad Aslam Buledi and Mrs. Rukhsana Zuberi.