I don’t know if it was Benzair or Nawaz, but whoever did it, thank you for that. No one appreciates the good things our leaders did, they only remember the bad things. But I for one will take this opportunity to remember a good thing.
If you didn’t have relatives abroad, or you didn’t call Pakistan from abroad then it probably doesn’t mean much to you. But to me it does. We had relatives calling from US and KSA, and we would call them too. With the old telephone system there were no direct international calls. You had to call an operator who would dial the number for you.
Just getting to the operator was hard, and after the calls were made, they would get disconnected very often. You had to shout most of the time, and there was lots of static. This meant whenever someone called from abroad, the whole house knew. I feel sorry for the lovers who would call each other, trying to get some romantic talking done.
A lot of these problems went away during the early to mid 90’s. People could direct dial, voice was very clear just like talking locally, and calls would not get disconnected so often. Just this little thing made us feel as if we were making progress.
Re: I would like to thank the Pakistani leader who modernized Pak telecom in the 90's
hahaha.. Mostar bhai... I knew you were going to come and say this.... I have been a hockey fan too but after the legends went away, I lost the interest :(
Re: I would like to thank the Pakistani leader who modernized Pak telecom in the 90's
In 1991 the Pakistan Telegraph and Telephone Department was converted into an autonomous body - Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation and then in 1995 it became a company under the Companies Ordinance 1984 and was re-named as Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited.
Re: I would like to thank the Pakistani leader who modernized Pak telecom in the 90's
Infact, the expatrait Pakistanies were the main source of revenue of PTCL during those days. The % of the Overseas Telecommunication Region in Karachi and Islamabad was almost 30% and that all in valueable foreign exchange.
Re: I would like to thank the Pakistani leader who modernized Pak telecom in the 90's
Mian Javed was the chairman of the company then. After his retirement a Chartered Accountant was given the charge, I think some Baig Sahib. There were many big names in telecommunication then - Sajjad Shah, SA Naqvi, Haris - they were all experts in their field.
Re: I would like to thank the Pakistani leader who modernized Pak telecom in the 90's
Excess of overseas incoming calls over the ones made from Pakistan over many many years helped PTCL to finance in new technology during the 90's. As a result PTCL was able to procure exchanges and cables from Alcatel, Erricson, Siemens, Azka Rabak, etc.
Re: I would like to thank the Pakistani leader who modernized Pak telecom in the 90's
During the digital expansion of 1990-1995, due to mismanagement and fraudulent activities of PTCL employees and PCO Mafia, PTCL suffered a loss of some 5 billion rupees alone in Karachi.
