Government Fires Top ICTRDF Directors

[AstanoshKhan]

Government Fires Top ICTRDF Directors

By Arsalan Mir | July 8, 2010 | 4 Comments

We have earlier reported on the tension rising between the government and officials of USF and ICTRDF. This has reached its limit today with six top-notch officials of the ICRTDF being fired by the Minister incharge for IT and Telecom Mr. Latif Khosa.

As mentioned in earlier posts the dispute was about the fate of a huge fund of more than Rs 20 billion available with these companies and Mr. Khosa trying to appoint his brother-in-law Mr. Azhar Manzoor as the Chairman of ICTRDF. It merits mentioning here that the degree Mr. Azhar Manzoor has produced with application for the said post is reportdly found FAKE by the HEC.

Those fired include: Mr. Sikandar Taqi, Mr. Wahaj Siraj, Mr. Zafar Usmani, Dr. Amir Mateen, Dr. Sohail Naqvi, and Dr. Mansoor Sarwar.

In his views on the subject, blogger Ammar Faheem says:

Amid sheer frustration, the government is now attacking Technocrats for their failure to comply with government wishes. In separate incidents, 6 top men for the ICTRDF have been fired including HEC Executive Director Dr. Sohail Naqvi. Pressure is also mounting on Dr. Javed Leghari to resign amidst the bogus degree saga.

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When are we going to get rid of this political scum from this land? Telecom and IT are the only growing sectors of Pakistan and these sick politicians are busy in digging a hole for making this sector dysfunctional too. Pathetic it is and pathetic it will go...

 

[RescueRanger]

ncluding HEC Executive Director Dr. Sohail Naqvi.

Even the Director of the Degree Watchdog had a fake degree... Only in Pakistan...

 

[WAQAS119]

 

[WAQAS119]

 

[AstanoshKhan]

ICT R&D Fund Directors Fired for Rejecting Khosa’s Brother-In-Law

by AAMIR ATTA

Ongoing difference between ICT R&D Fund directors and Mr. Latif Khan Khosa reached its highest level when six out of 12 directors were shown the door for not complying with Minister’s urge of appointing Mr. Azhar Manzoor as the ICT R&D Fund Chairman, reported Sama TV.

Mr. Manzoor is the brother-in-law of Prime Minister’s Adviser on Information Technology Latif Khosa.

According to a notification issued by the Information Technology Ministry 6 were terminated with immediate effect. Named include:

* Sikandar Taqi,
* Wahaj al Saraj,
* Zafar Usmani,
* Dr Amir Mateen,
* Dr Suhail Naqvi
* Prof Dr. Mansoor Sarwar

Sources say the slot of the chairman of ICTR&D Fund was lying vacant, which Latif Khosa tried to fill, recommending his brother in-law for this position.

HRGC (Human Resource Governance Committee) received applications from multiple candidates including the brother-in-law of Mr. Khosa, as reported by sources in fund.

Mr. Manzoor had presented his MBA degree without mentioning the institute. On inquiry, it was found that he had graduated from some “Canadian Management Institute”, which actually was a fake and non-existent university, as HEC has said that it does not recognize this institute; in fact it does not exist at all, told us sources familiar with situation.

On this, out of 12, six directors refused to approve Azhar Manzoor’s name as the Chairman of ICTR&DF, after which they were fired with immediate effect.

We were unable to collect Minister’s viewpoint on the issue.

It merits mentioning here that ICT R&D Fund is run by a set amount of revenue share offered by telecom companies. It offers funding to local universities and firms for research and development projects.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Khosa Removed as IT and Telecom Minister

After multiple controversies, Sardar Muhammad Latif Khosa has been removed as Minister In-charge for IT and Telecom Ministry with immediate effect.

Mr. Khosa remained Minister In-charge for MoIT for four months.

Mr. Khosa will continue working as Adviser on IT but powers of the Minister are withdrawn. Prime Minister will be the Minister Incharge of the MOIT from now onwards.

Mr. Khosa had sacked 6 directors of ICT R&D fund for rejecting his brother-in-law as chief of fund. Just today, it is learned that sacked directors moved LHC against Mr. Khosa, alleging their termination as illegal and against the law.

Following notification was issued for withdrawal of Mr. Khosa’s minister-ship

-----------------------

GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN

CABINET SECRETARIAT

CABINET DIVISION

No. 3-1/2008-Min-I

Islamabad, the 19th July, 2010

O F F IC E M E M O R A N D U M

Subject: DELEGATION OF POWERS OF “FEDERAL MINISTER-IN-CHARGE” TO SARDAR MUHAMMAD LATIF KHAN KHOSA, ADVISER TO THE PRIME MINISTER ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.

The undersigned is directed to state that Cabinet Division’s Office Memorandum of even number dated 27th March 2010, designating Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Information Technology, as Minister-in-Charge for Ministry of Information and Technology, is hereby withdrawn with immediate effect.

2. Consequent upon the above decision the Prime Minister, himself, will henceforth look after the Ministry of Information Technology as per first proviso to rule 3(4) of the Rules of Business, 1973.

(REHMATULLAH KHAN)

Deputy Secretary to the

Government of Pakistan

Secretary,

Information Technology and Telecommunication Division,

Islamabad.

Copy forwarded to;

1. Secretary General to the President
2. Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister
3. Secretaries, National Assembly/Senate, Secretariats
4. All Ministries/Divisions
5. PS to Adviser to the Prime Minister (Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa)

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This news made my day.


Now the Govt. should hire a pure technical person for this post like they have hired Dr. Hafeez Sheikh for Finance.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

MoITT, Khosa encounter in new phase

People in the telecom sector might have heaved a deep sigh of relief on the removal of Sardar Latif Khan Khosa from the office of Minister-Incharge and, but all happiness faded away in few hours after President Zardari retained him as advisor of the ministry.

With the possible exit of Mr Khosa from Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), it seemed that several overt and covert cropping up controversies had come to end temporary but now a new round of revenge commenced between ministry’s and Prime Minister’s advisor.

Yesterday, Mr Khosa tendered his resignation to President Asif Zardari in protest after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani has taken away all his powers by removing him from the office of Minister in-charge. However, President asked him to continue his job as advisor.

Mr Khosa was excluded from his office after several complaints against his alleged corruption by the stakeholders of telecom sector.

Mr Khosa is supposed to advise Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, who is now again in-charge of the ministry.

Khosa Background

He was first appointed as Attorney General of Pakistan in 2008 but removed in October 2010 after he was accused of corruption allegations. He was appointed as Advisor to PM on Constitution and removed shortly due to internal disputes among party members and now has beer removed fro MoITT minister-ship as well.

In his brief period of five months as minister of MoITT, Mr Khosa has allegedly violated rules and regulations of the government and tried to appoint his relatives or other close friends on the key posts of the ministry.

He was also heading other subsidiaries of ministry such as Information & Communication Technology (ICT) R&D (Research and Development) Fund and Universal Service Fund (USF) and taken several aggressive and controversial measures unilaterally.

Recently, he sacked six independent board members of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) R&D (Research and Development) Fund which caused his overthrow.

Mr Khusa has had rifts with CEO USF Pervaiz Iftikhar as he wanted to rid him as soon as possible. He has shaken all the USF across the board and sought new team to drive its uplifting projects.

Secretary MoITT Nagibullah Malik and Dr Muhammad Yaseen were also comfortable working under him as he allegedly ignored the merit and technical issues in the ministry’s business.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Usage of fake degres is deplorable act

 

[Martian]

Even the Director of the Degree Watchdog had a fake degree... Only in Pakistan...

It is not about Dr Sohail Naqvi's degree. The degree of Khosa's bro-in-law is fake:

"It merits mentioning here that the degree Mr. Azhar Manzoor has produced with application for the said post is reportdly found FAKE by the HEC."

 

[somebozo]

Only in Pakistan where favourism over runs merit.
Seriously, why is nobody sincere with country and want only their releatives to benefit??

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Khosa Alleges Mass Corruption in IT and Telecom Industry

By Aamir Attaa · Friday, Jul 23, 2010

We know that Mr. Khosa was removed as Minister in-charge for IT and Telecom, in protest to which he had resigned being adviser to Prime Minister, which was not accepted by President Asif Ali Zardari.

It is yet interesting that Mr. Khosa presented his resignation to Mr. Zardari instead Prime Minister, his direct boss.

With his resignation to President Asif Ali Zaradri, Sardar Latif Khosa sent a letter alleging the top bureaucrats in the Ministry of Information technology with the help of cartel telecom industry were involved in illegal activities and corruption.

Following is the selected text of letter that was sent to President from Mr. Khosa.

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Secretary IT along with Member Telecom, Member IT helping Cartels of Private Companies in illegal activities prevailing in Ministry of IT from last regime and were in continuation in this regime, with the help and support of bureaucracy.

I as Minister-in-Charge of IT took serious actions against malicious malfunctioning in different departments related with Ministry in best interest of Government and Citizens of Pakistan.

In USF Company, whose objective is to uplift telecommunication in the rural and under served areas, is practically high-jacked by the cartel of private companies and ministry officials those who are awarding contracts in access of billions to companies through subsidy contracts without any due-diligence.

Major chunk of subsidized projects was awarded to those companies who had their representation on the board of the USF Company as Board Directors i.e. PTCL, World Call and Telenor, amounting over 10 billions in one year.

Pressurized the Minister In-Charge to extend the tenure of existing CEO, for another 3 years against rules. It has been noticed that hiring & appointment of same CEO in 2007 were violation of rules.

Existing CEO USF Mr. Perviaz Iftikhar, whose tenure of appointment has expired, factually was hired through non-transparent process; as he was not even short-listed by the Federal Government’s committee mandated to do the job under relevant rules.

Mr. Farruk Qayyum (than Secretary IT), expressed and noted down serious reservations about this appointment. Instead of accepting the mistake, existing bureaucracy is desperately protecting the illegal appointment of the CEO and with backing of Secretary IT, even has tried to confront the Minister-In-Charge by siding with the board members from private sector.

So far, PTCL got projects over Rs 7.7 billion in USF, whereas, they never paid a single rupee, as they were required to commission 83,000 lines till 2008 in-lieu of 1.5% of specified contribution, which is obligatory on every other licensee.

Subsidy percentage exponentially rose from just 9% to above 80 %, whole process was very flawed and highly controversial. No audit of broadband subsidy projects has been done so far, it is only after probe by the Standing Committee of Senate that process for hiring of technical auditor has been initiated.ICT R & D Fund Company, whose objective is to promote R & D in ICT sector, was also high-jacked by the cartel of private companies and ministry officials those who were awarding contracts in access of millions to private companies through contracts without any due-diligence.

Board members of ICT R&D Fund Company were not nominated according to rules prescribed in Memorandum and Article of Association of the company. One board member was notified against provisions under relevant rules. Board members have never submitted conflict of interest Form, which is mandatory.

Contracts were awarded to companies those who were never in a position to deliver. There were billions of outstanding contributions with operators as liability according to Telecom deregulation Act.

PTA and Ministry of IT are instructed to receive all pending payments from operators at the earliest so that this money can be utilized for the intended benefits. PTA illegally placed 55 billion rupees of Ministry of IT in Federal Consolidated Fund, for which PTA was neither custodian nor it was PTAs money.

I directed Chairman PTA to get this money back to Ministry of IT and utilize it for the meant purposes. According to rules and regulations of Telecom Act, Auditor General of Pakistan should audit funds of USF and ICTR&D every year. Moreover, Ministry of IT has to send audit report to National Assembly as mandatory.

Since inception of funds, no audit was ever conducted. I directed Secretary IT to have a detailed audit of these funds by AG and submit the report to National Assembly for review and necessary guidance. Grey traffic is a menace; which is not happening without involvement of officials of MOIT and PTA.

Countries like India and Bangladesh have recently taken strict measures against grey traffickers and have fined millions of dollars to those companies/licensees found involved in facilitating or terminating grey traffic. In-spite of the fact that strict/penalizing measures were taken in our neighbourhood, our departments like PTA and MOIT never took / shown any interest and grey traffickers boomed.

I have proposed to the ECC to approve APC for Mobile operators. Since 2004, cellular operators were deprived of this benefit; resultantly no benefit to State as well as to operators was ever reported. It is pertinent to mention that I have taken the decision for good, as facts are not supporting towards APC for Mobile.

As local Loop licensees like PTCL who were benefiting from the APC regime, never utilized it for meant purpose e.g. subscriber base of PTCL has reduced to around 3 million with 100% surplus network capacity, thus no utilization of permissible APC. I have proposed for an automated system at PTA to monitor grey traffic i.e. International Traffic Clearing House.

As a matter of fact, the media drive is backed up by a de-notified member of ICT R & D fund, Mr. Wahaj Us Siraj, a person who is notorious for avoiding Content Filtering measures by the State, a measure which if taken would put tough challenge to his business association. His recent press briefing is evident of this fact. I am proposing/taking exceptionally strong measures to implement content filtering software of international standard.

Benchmarks shall be content filters placed by the UAE-ETISALAT & South Korea-KT. If ETISALAT can implement these in UAE for good of local society there. There were clear evidence against Executive Director, EGD Mr. Amir Shehzad of illegal hiring, fraud and forgery in record, issuance of antedated appointment letters, alleged theft of official vehicle and termination of employees who have launched complaint of gross irregularities against him.

The Standing Committee of Senate on IT took serious note of these irregularities and asked me to suspend ED EGD immediately and launched an inquiry against him. He is absconder from inquiry from that day. I directed Ministry to forward summary of termination of ED EGD to Prime Minister. Contract termination summary of Mr. Amer Shehzad, sent to the P.M, has not been pursued by Secretary IT, despite clear directions.

Mr. Mustaq Bhatti, as Member Telecom is not a competent expert to deliver. He was at 3rd place in the merit list at the time of his appointment. As Member Telecom, he is mainly responsible to deliver and maintain policies for the Telecom Sector, on the contrary, as already indicated above, our major policies have already expired and nothing is in foresight with his attitude and caliber.

He is being protected by the Secretary IT. Member IT, Mr. Tariq Badsha has been holding position since May, 2001.He has also done nothing to achieve the targets set under IT policy.

Worst, the National IT policy has also expired. He was assigned a task in 2004 to establish Federal Government Data Center by 2006 (a strategic project of extreme importance). He has wasted 6 years and 270 millions of the Government, so far nothing is on ground and money spent has gone wasted.

I ordered an inquiry to fix responsibility. I have also taken no time in deciding the future of the Data Center Project and have set on path to get it done through support of US government. He is also involved in contractual irregularities for procurement in many projects; most sensitive is E-Office for the Federal Government.

During the visit of the President of Pakistan to China in August,2009 a MOU was signed to provide soft loan amounting to 150 US $ to Pakistan to implement GOTA project. Similarly, project “Safe City” has taken lead, on right track and sailing smoothly through bureaucracy echelons. This is not acceptable at all, particularly where Head of State is even committed.Similarly, JICA (Government of Japan) offered a project to the Government of Pakistan, which is to be funded in shape of Grant-In-Aid for Coastal Communication Management.

Ironically, our bureaucracy is deliberately delaying it and we shall loose another friend/donor during prevailing hard times.

Mr. Nagib Ullah Malik Secretary IT, who remained chief custodian of government stakes for over a year, never escalated and pointed out these matters. Secretary IT, being the Principal Accounting Officer, is to be held responsible for this gross negligence.

Committees took strong notice of above mentioned happenings and probe by the constitutional entities is still underway. Committee members have also established that there is clear violation of rules, lack of due-diligence and conflict of interest at the part of board members appointed from private sector.

Telecom De-regulation policy, Mobile Cellular policy, Broadband policy and IT policy had already expired and all these require review/fresh formulation.

During routine briefings, I also noticed that important policy targets i.e. e-governance, e-commerce, anti-grey traffic, building knowledge based society, local content building, protecting and facilitating local investors etc were left unattended, principally these required State intervention.

I have already tasked for 2 days consultation event with the industry to consult and kickoff policies formulation process.

Recommended amendments in SRO of USF and got it updated, wherein contributors those who have conflict of interest OR are defaulters of contributions OR have failed to execute awarded projects cannot be part of USF Board .Directed to advertise the position of CEO USF to have open competition as law did not envisage extension of tenure. Used powers to allow the payments of scholarships to needy and deserving students with immediate effects. Delivery and watching the public interest and promote image of the government is prime concern.

Ordered for de-notification of the board members from private sector, as their appointment was violation of law / rules. Directed the Ministry of IT to select the board members as per laid down procedures. Our government has to deliver; above-mentioned are facts of criminal intents and high incompetence.

I believe for betterment of nation and citizens of Pakistan. These elements be eliminated from Government without further delay, particularly Mr. Nagib Ullah Malik, Secretary IT should be removed. With such people at key positions, we cannot achieve our goals given in Pakistan People Party Manifesto.

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A federal government’s adviser is supposed to tender his resignation to PM. But, Mr Ten percent became 100 percent and assuming complete authority of everything.

Despite crystal clear corruption charges, Mr Zardari has retained him, citing the reason that he is very loyal to the party. Well, this is a merit system in our country. You are corrupt and incompetent so don’t be worry, you have a good job if you are loyal to your leaders.

Khapay Pakistan… Zardai Na Khapay

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Khosa’s Allegations are Baseless: IT Secretary

By Saleh Sikandar · Sunday, Jul 25, 2010

Information and Technology Secretary Naguibullah Malik has said that there is no ‘turf war’ between him and Adviser to Prime Minister on IT Sardar Abdul Latif Khosa, as their roles are different.

Talking to “The News” regarding Khosa’s allegations, he said it was his professional duty to ensure efficiency and transparency in the Information Technology Ministry, being its administrative head.

“Since my assumption of charge as the IT secretary on May 19, 2009, I have tried to establish high standards of professionalism and there are some success stories. However, I am neither responsible nor can I give comments on the action taken prior to my posting,” he said, adding: “I can safely say that despite some deficiencies and capacity issues, the ministry is in the right gear to meet challenges”.

He said information with regard to the USF and ICT R&D Fund companies was available at Promoting Development of Telecommunication services- Universal Service Fund. and www.nictrdf.org.pk which is transparent and available for general public to audit it.

“At present, activities being undertaken by the IT Ministry and its attached organisations are strictly in accordance with the given legal and policy parameters, and open to any kind of scrutiny,” the IT secretary added.

An official of the ministry, however, said Adviser Khosa acted in an arbitrary and whimsical manner. “He wanted his orders implemented forthwith, without any check or hindrance. However, the IT secretary insisted on going by the book,” the official added.

Since most of the adviser’s decisions were in conflict with the legal-cum-administrative framework; therefore, their implementation was widely resisted. “The IT Ministry is responsible for the policy formulation and the PTA is the regulator and it functions under the administrative control of the cabinet secretariat.” The official said both entities had to adopt investor-friendly policies, as the IT and Telecom sector contributed towards the economic growth of the country, as Pakistan was a known IT and Telecom investment destination.

The adviser went wrong in targeting the multinational telecom investor companies, unnecessarily, without realising their importance and the fact that the ministry is driven by the private sector entities.

The companies contribute their share of profits to the USF fund and National ICT R&D fund companies, which is the basic financial resource of the companies.

Besides, they are deeply involved in expansion of telephony and broadband connectivity in the country.

The official said because of the adviser’s behaviour and attitude, some companies had put things ‘on the hold’. “The adviser could not comprehend the dynamics of the IT and Telecom industry, and annoyed every one in the process. His tenure would always be identified with a logjam, which prevailed in the IT Ministry during his six-month stay,” he added.

“The allegations levelled by Khosa against Wahajus Siraj are not only false, but bizarre as well. The Internet Service Provider Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) has always been a strong advocate of Internet content filtering software and even helped the government in 2003 to develop the technical specifications and details for such a software, but the IT Ministry, then headed by Awais Leghari, and the PTA backed out from getting that software developed.”

The ISPAK has documentary evidence of all previous letters. Its recent press briefing was related to counter the anti-Pakistan propaganda of Fox News for ranking the country as number one in Internet **** searches, something that was duty of Mr Khosa and his ministry.

But since the government did not bother countering insult of the country and its people by a foreign TV channel, the ISPAK came forward to present the facts to the media, again nothing related to the content filtering software.

“Actually Khosa is infuriated because illegally ‘denotified’ directors of R&D Fund first refused to appoint his brother-in-law as CEO and then approached the high court for seeking justice,” the official added.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Unveils White Paper of Rs 50 Billion Scam Khosa Turns Against his Own Government

By Sana Fatima · Thursday, Aug 5, 2010

In what he called a “white paper” apparently against his own government and the ministry that he was heading till recently, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on IT Sardar Latif Khosa has revealed that at least Rs50 billion are annually lost by the state and telecom companies due to the unchecked grey tariff, i.e. illegal network of international calls.

Forwarded to the Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on IT, Khosa, who was recently deprived of being the Minister in charge of the IT Ministry, sought from the NA body to intervene to improve the prevailing situation in the affairs of IT and Telecom Division and its various entities.

Khosa signed the letter addressed to the Chairman NA body as Adviser to the PM on IT, but the letterhead he used clearly introduces him as a “federal minister”.

Khosa accused the PTA and the IT ministry to have been involved in this massive corruption. Khosa wrote: “A conservative estimate (of the loss due to grey traffic) is around 50 billion rupees per annum, which is not happening without involvement of officials of MOIT (Ministry of IT) and PTA.”

Khosa’s white paper says that countries like India and Bangladesh have recently taken strict measures against grey traffickers and have imposed fine of millions of dollars on those companies found involved in facilitating grey traffic. In-spite of the fact that strict/penalizing measures were taken in our neighbourhood, our department like PTA and MOIT never took any interest and grey traffickers boomed. Khosa informed the NA body that he has proposed to the ECC a strategy to curb the menace.

Regarding what he termed financial mismanagement of USF (Universal Service Fund) and information and communication technologies research and development (ICT R&D) Funds, Khosa said in his white paper that amounts of USF and ICT R&D funds should have been invested in the Risk Free Government Securities only, whereas, they have been investing in banks of the choice at commercial rates. “Advisor to the PM has found it as deviation of grave nature and so far, no further investments have been allowed, as minister in charge is scrutinizing the fiasco. It is pertinent to also mention that the Member Telecom has kept his brother-in-law Muhammad Idrees under him to manage the funds of USF & ICT R&D.”

Khosa added, “There were billions of outstanding contributions with operators as liability according to Telecom deregulation Act. I have instructed PTA and Ministry of IT to receive all pending payments from operators at the earliest so that this money can be utilized for the intended benefits.”

Khosa also charged the PTA with illegally placing Rs55 billion of IT Ministry in Federal Consolidated Fund, for which PTA was neither custodian nor it was PTA’s money. “This money shall be utilized for USF and ICT R&D Fund objectives. I directed Chairman PTA to get this money back to Ministry of IT and utilize it for the meant purposes.”

Khosa gave his detailed view of what he called the “illegal activities, prevailing in the Ministry of IT from last regime and were continuing in this regime with the help and support of bureaucracy. “I as Minister-in-Charge of IT took serious actions against malicious malfunctioning in different departments related with Ministry in best interest of Government and Citizens of Pakistan,” wrote Khosa, who, however, did not mention as to why then he was recently removed by the prime minister as minister-in-charge of the IT ministry.

Regarding the affairs of USF, he said that its board members have conflict of interest as major chunk of subsidized projects amounting to Rs10 billion were awarded to those companies who had their representation on the board of the USF Company. He said that one of the leading telecom company of Pakistan got projects over Rs7.7 billion without even contributing a single penny to the Fund.

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Khosa back in action

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Ex-Minister of IT and Telecommunication to be appointed as Governer Punjab.

Zardari's aide may succeed Taseer
REUTERS, Jan 9, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's president is set to appoint close aide Latif Khosa to succeed the murdered governor of the key Punjab province, officials said, another step in resolving a weeklong political crisis.

President Asif Ali Zardari is expected to name Khosa, a former attorney general, on Saturday from Karachi. "Mr Khosa is most likely to be appointed as Punjab governor," a senior government official said. Other top officials confirmed the appointment was expected.

Khosa said on Saturday that Zardari had called him for a meeting in Karachi. "I will accept whatever the decision of my leadership," he said.

If appointed as expected, Khosa will succeed Salman Taseer, the outspoken governor of the central province of Punjab, who was gunned down by one of his bodyguards in Islamabad on Tuesday for supporting changes in a controversial blasphemy law.

The choice of who will replace Taseer is crucial for Zardari. Punjab is the most populated province in Pakistan and its political nerve center.

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A man who made a mess of IT and Telecom ministry and eventually was fired by the PM, has been appointed as Governer Punjab by the President. What else could be expected from Zardari & Co.

 

[kakaa]

Mr. Khusa is right about corruption charges on the ICTRD CEO and Board members, following is my complaint filed at NAB and Transparency Intl. Siraj Wahaj is one of the corrupt person who on the name of Islam cheated me. He promised me to sign NDA, but after getting the project details of my Real-time Adult Content Analysis and Blocking SoC (ABlocker), he never replied me with signed NDA. This is a shame, see his email below:

"Thanks for your mail and sorry for not replying to you earlier.
.....

Your ABlocker proposal seems interesting. This seems a hardware addition to the customer’s PC. I’d be glad to get more information under an NDA and I’d appreciate if you could send me one for execution.

Wassalam….Wahaj"

-----------------------------
ORGANIZED FRAUD, CORRUPTION AND NEPOTISM IN
NATIONAL ICT R&D FUND MANAGEMENT



OVERVIEW
The National ICT R&D Fund Co. (ICTRDF) was established in January 2007 by Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan, with the objective of transforming Pakistan's economy into a knowledge-based economy. However, like any other initiative this fund is also under the control of corrupt mafia, and millions of rupees are granted to unqualified people, who are friends or family of the fund managers in the form of research grants or proposal evaluation fees. Not only sub standard research proposals have been accepted, but plagiarism and recycling of other people’s work has been wrong fully encouraged. On the contrary genuine research proposals have been either pending for years or simply rejected by biased external evaluation. The reviewers are also friends / families of the management, who give their prejudiced reviews on the proposals at the management’s will with no merit or rationale. There is no transparency in the proposal approval process and the final outcome of the research is never known. Therefore, the result of spending so much money is equivalent to null.
PLAINTIFF’S BACKGROUND
Before going into the details of this charge sheet, I like to introduce myself. I am an internationally renowned researcher and practitioner in the field of electrical engineering and computer science. I am acclaimed and respected in the technical sciences research community for my demonstrated competence in both the theory and applications of computer architecture. I am internationally recognized as an expert in the field of VLSI design, computer architecture/arithmetic, cryptography, and video processing. I have published several papers and US patents. I worked at reputable multi-national companies, like, Siemens, SONY, Synopsys, and BroadCom. Currently, I am employed as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Avieon Inc., a US Company. I have been invited several times to serve as a peer-reviewer for top-tier scientific computing journals, conferences, symposia and workshops such as IEEE Transactions on Computers, Circuit and Systems, VLSI Systems, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, International Journal of Electronics and Journal of VLSI Signal Processing.

EXAMPLES OF SUB-STANDARD PROJECT APPROVALS:
The approved projects are available on the web site of National ICT R&D Fund Co. I scanned through those and personally evaluated those projects that were relevant to my area of expertise or appeared to be of interest to me. I reviewed the following three funded projects which are related to my field and found the proposal very vague and without merit:


1. “Real Time Implementation of H.264 Decoder for Heterogeneous Multicore Architectures”, by Start Date: November, 2008, Project Cost: PKR 16.64 million Project Funding: PKR 14.98 million, Project Status: In progress
2. “Power Aware Video Coding For Extending Battery Life in Portable and Mobile Devices”, by Dr. Nadeem Khan and Dr. Jahangir Ikram, Start Date: May, 2009, Duration: 27 months, Project Cost: PKR 13.03 million Project Funding: PKR 13.03 million, Project Status: In progress
3. “Investigating Wavelet based Video Coding and Video Conference Applications”, by Dr. Shahid Masud and Dr. Nadeem Khan, Start Date: June, 2008 Duration: 24 months, Project Cost: PKR 7.2 million Project Funding: PKR 7.2 million, Project Status: In progress.
In the following sections, I will go through the weaknesses of all these projects, but before that I like to present my personal experience with Dr. Qasim and ICTRD.
IN THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS I REVIEW THE THREE PROJECTS MENTIONED ABOVE:


DR. QASIM’S LOYALTY TO HIS PREVIOUS COMPANY (CONFLICT OF INTEREST):
The National ICT R&D Fund Co. web site shows an approved project under the name “Real Time Implementation of H.264 Decoder for Heterogeneous Multicore Architectures”, , Start Date: November, 2008, Project Cost: PKR 16.64 million Project Funding: PKR 14.98 million.
This is simply a recycling project, and main purpose is to serve the interest of Inforient USA. The first time I talked to Dr. Qasim, he was introduced to me as the ‘Partner’ (share holder) along with his friend Sajid Sohail, and caretaker of Inforient USA., Pakistan office. Please see the web link: ... This web page may have been changed now but Dr. Qasim’s resume will reveal the truth.
‘Altair Technologies Islamabad’ is an affiliate of Inforient as is evident from the CV of Faisal Abdullah the JPD in the approved proposal available on the web site of National ICT R&D Fund Co. As per my knowledge Dr. Qasim has been the CEO of Altair Technologies before joining National ICT R&D Fund Co.
It is evident that there is a clear conflict of interest, and Public money is provided as free money to apparently own company for a worthless and redundant project. Dr. Imtiaz and MAJU have been used to cover the corruption because all funds are released to MAJU whereas Altair spends all the money. As per my knowledge the entire work is being done at Altair Technologies, salaries are paid to Altair employees. Who in turn develop the products for JadoTV ...., owned by Sajid Sohail. Apart from the above conflict of interest, the proposal should be rejected on the following technical grounds:
This work has been done many times, and this project will just copy paste / recycle the work of others and use the project funding for running the business of Inforient USA and Altair Technologies Islamabad.
1. There are already opensource implementations of the H.264 decoder running on any platform, most widely used is ....“FFmpeg is a complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. It includes libavcodec - the leading audio/video codec library.” Sajid Sohail and Faisal Abdullah of Inforient USA both worked for my Avieon Inc. USA and I provided them the knowledge about ffmpeg.
2. The other implementations of the H.264 decoder are the following: ....

“Texas Instruments Inc. has introduced the TMS320DM357, its newest digital media processor based on DaVinci technology. The DM357 is a low-cost, ARM-based processor that includes a royalty-free H.264 codec at D1 resolution for video compression, as well as MPEG-4, JPEG and G.711 codecs that do not require licensing fees or royalties to TI
....
“The DM365 is optimized for video security applications by supporting 1080p H.264”

The TI Datasheet published in July 2008, for the part number mentioned in the proposal is attached here as a proof. The proposal was submitted in September 2008. One expert in the field will realize that the goals committed in the proposal are relaxed / sub-standard to the minimum, as compared to the higher performance video encoder-decoder already available on the TI DSP. The main purpose of approving this sub-standard proposal is to deliver something of inferior quality (cut/paste) without doing any effort, and at the same time use the project funds for personal use or some other project.
Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed Taj has never done this type of work. Dr. Imtiaz bio at MAJU web site, reveals he has never done anything related to video codecs: ...
1. Dr. Imtiaz of MAJU (the PD) is probably used to cover the proposal and to show that the proposal has strength in collaboration of Industry and Academia. Since the students of MAJU are working for Altair almost the entire funding goes to Altair. It is only routed through MAJU to cover corruption. Dr. Imtiaz is getting remuneration but contributing nothing to the project. As such his remuneration is not justified. How come Dr. Imtiaz is approved as the PD for this project, with no background in video codecs. I have already filed complaint to the higher authorities of the MAJU about the involvement of a faculty member in corruption, but so far no action seems they are also a part of this corruption.
There is no benefit to Pakistan with this project only beneficiary is .....

BOGUS PROJECT # 2
I recently saw “Power Aware Video Coding For Extending Battery Life in Portable and Mobile Devices”, by Dr. Nadeem Khan and Dr. Jahangir Ikram, Start Date: May, 2009, Duration: 27 months, Project Cost: PKR 13.03 million Project Funding: PKR 13.03 million, Project Status: In progress
The reason I picked-up this project for review because this is what Avieon has been doing, lowest power programmable video CODECs. I have direct experience working with world class mobile customers and chip manufacturers, who are using Avieon IP due to its low power consumption and programmability. I would reject this project based on the following facts:
1. The whole proposal is very superficial and buzz words are used instead of concrete examples, and methodology. The authors seem unaware of the fact that MPEG4 power consumption is l/3 of the H264 video codecs, therefore, MPEG4 is the required video codec for 3G communication. It is not clear from the proposal that the authors are trying to optimize the Video Decoder or Video Encoder. If it is a Video Encoder, then there is no need of motion estimation if the power consumption is the major concern, only Intra Frame encoding is done. However, if it is a video decoder then there is no way to cut corners in the computations, if B-frames are present than they need to be decoded. At the same time if authors develop any encoder of their own, then no one else in the world can decode that video without using author’s decoder. This is not a practical solution.
2. The authors are talking about QCIF and QVGA resolution throughout the proposal; no one is concerned about the power consumption of these resolutions. As, the power consumption of the Video codec at these resolutions is negligible as compared to the power consumption in the LCD, I/O, and memory interfaces. Also, the power consumption profiles for QVGA and HD or D1 resolution are totally different. Therefore, the work done / optimizations applied to QVGA resolution are not applicable to HD.
3. As already mentioned above, no concrete data is provided, which video standard will be used, which mobile phone will be used for the experiments and development, how will the authors control all the parameters? The development methodology is incorrect: “Our software development methodology will focus on using open source video codecs of low complexities that are based on open standards like MPEG-4, H.264 and SVC.”. H264 and SVC are complex video codecs, H.264 is 3X more compute intensive than MPEG-4, and MPEG-4 is the least power consumption video standard of the three mentioned above.
There are other short comings of this project as well; those internal and external evaluators who were paid for the evaluation of the project and project approver should be held responsible.


BOGUS PROJECT # 3
I provided the following proof of non-transparency in ICTRD to Dr. Qasim as shown below, but he never provided a satisfactory answer, but I think the original proposal was modified a bit after my protest.
I found the proposal from ICTRD website “Investigating Wavelet based Video Coding and Video Conference Applications”, by Dr. Shahid Masud and Dr. Nadeem Khan, Start Date: June, 2008 Duration: 24 months, Project Cost: PKR 7.2 million Project Funding: PKR 7.2 million, Project Status: In progress. Which is related to my area, and similar to my work and it was approved for funding in March 08 (our submission was made before this one). I have illustrated a comparison of proposals that were reviewed by ICT R&D and the approval criteria of the proposal reviewing team. It shows the extremely poor level of transparency and uniformity in the technical review process.
a) On a quick review of this proposal, I found there is not a Single reference in the proposal, and we provided detailed literature review of around 23 papers. There are some numbers [1]...[8] in the proposal pointing to something but no further description is available.
b) We were asked for detailed methodology, in this proposal no methodology is given.
c) The authors are talking of video conferencing and not a single mention of frame rate is given in the proposal. Even the authors are unsure how many pixels are there in QCIF and 720p. This is a pretty vague proposal.
d) No mention of FPGA board, performance or gate count is given. While we have identified the FPGA boards, clock speed, gate count etc..
e) One of the objectives of this research is to do realtime processing on PC, no mention of PC speed is given but the PC can already perform realtime video conferencing. This nullified the whole project.
f) Whatever be the objectives mentioned in Section II are already done, 1. Assess the feasibility of wavelet based approaches to replace block-based DCT coding in Video codecs. 2. Comparison of performance in terms of complexity and quality of wavelet based and DCT based video codecs. and does not require 2 years of work.
I can find many other things in that proposal, if I review it thoroughly. Not only we have developed 50% of the work before submitting the proposal and presented the most difficult part in conference papers. We are asked for things, which cannot be revealed before implementation. This is not transparency or justice.