Largest commitment of its kind by Pak private sector to date for IDPs relief – ERU

Islamabad, June 2, 2009: Mobilink, the country’s market leader in cellular communication services and a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom today signed a MoU with the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to establish Mobilink Camp in Kund which will support 1,000 families of IDPs for a period of 3 months.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Omar Manzur, Director Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility, Mobilink shared, “The Government of NWFP and ERU have been very kind in allowing us to establish an entire camp. Estimated at about Rs 81 million, the project has been made possible by Orascom’s continued support for this noble cause.” Manzur added that while Mobilink will be relying on the expertise of ERU and UN’s implementing partner agencies, Mobilink employees have taken great initiative to take on this immense responsibility. Our teams will remain personally involved in various areas of camp management, procurement of items and other requirements. At Mobilink, we strongly encourage employee volunteerism which remains the key driving force behind this project, he said.

Commenting on this historic move by Mobilink, Provincial Relief Commissioner and Incharge of ERU Muhammad Azam Khan said that this is the largest commitment of its kind shown to date by the private sector of Pakistan for IDPs relief. A great value addition is that Mobilink and Orascom are providing logistical and procurement support to facilitate speedy deployment of the camp so that the incoming IDPs have a place to go to at the earliest, Khan added. This mass-scale suffering is one of the largest humanitarian crises in recent years, he said, urging the private sector to take Mobilink’s lead in helping their countrymen in this hour of need.

According to latest reports available on ERU’s website www.helpidp.org number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has crossed 3 million. Adnan Zafar, ERU Member Operation and Fawad Hussain, National Humanitarian Affairs Officer UNOCHA and other officials were also present on the occasion along with Mobilink’s CSR team. This support is in addition to delivery of relief items by Mobilink to families residing in hujras, schools and dispensaries of Mardan and Swabi including far-flung villages bordering Buner.

To date, Mobilink’s Security team continues to personally deliver weekly ration packs utilizing the Rs 3.3 million raised via
employee donations and Aid collection points and have reached out to more than 1,670 families to date. Mobilink and Orascom have shown unwavering commitment in the past as well by actively engaging in the relief and rehabilitation of the Oct 2005 earthquake affectees.

Source: http://mobilinkgsm.com/about/media/press/idp.pdf

The demonstrators gathered at Fazal-e-Haq Road, Blue Area, also registered their protest against the raid, arrest and harassment policy persuaded by Microsoft Inc.

On the occasion, the computers’ vendors community expressed their full support and solidarity with the President PCA Karachi.  Abdullah Malik, President PCA Islamabad, while speaking on the occasion, strongly reacted against the recent move by the Microsoft.

“We do not support piracy but this was not a reasonable way to trap a senior computer vendor like the way it was done. Several other ways and means can be explored to minimize the piracy of Moicrosoft Softwares.
Seminars, Talks, Literature and motivation on moral grounds can be made to stop piracy,” he added.

Senior community member and Vice President PCA Central and Arshad Janjua, General Secretary PCA Central, said if Microsoft will not immediately withdraw the case against Khushnood Aftab, the community may go for a
boycott of Microsoft products.

Furqan Murtaza, Vice President, Irfan-ul-Haq, Vice President, Najam-Us-Sahar, Ibrar-ul-Haq, Joint secretary, Executive Members A.R. Tahir, Khawar Idrees, Haseeb Ahmad and other office bearers of PCA Islamabad also condemned the act of harassment by Microsoft.

They called for immediate withdrawal of the case against PCA President Karachi Chapter. Munawar Iqbal, Central President of Pakistan Computer Association, who is on a visit to USA and Canada nowadays, telephonically
addressed the Executive Committee Members of PCA and strongly condemned the act of harassment against the computer vendors community.

He asked the office bearers of PCA to go for all out efforts to protest against the move made by the Microsoft.

“If Microsoft will not come out with a pragmatic and amicable solution in this regard, we will be compelled and left with no option but to go for a countrywide boycott of Microsoft”.

Countrywide protests were also made on Friday, in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad to express solidarity with the President PCA Karachi.

It was unanimously observed that if Microsoft will not arrange a prompt release of Khushnood and tender an unconditional apology for their raid, arrest and harassment policy, the community may call for a complete
boycott of Microsoft Products in Pakistan.

Telenor Pakistan as part of its ongoing Career Management Workshops (CMW) initiative, is reaching out to several universities all across Pakistan. So far, 20 universities have been visited in different regions benefiting over 3000 students. The CMW sessions are conducted by experienced HR professionals with the aim to guide students interested in taking up a career in any industry.

Read the rest of the press release here.