Pakistan’s first digital media studio set up at Karachi Press Club

The Federal Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication has established Pakistan’s first studio for digital media practitioners at the Karachi Press Club (KPC). Federal Minister for IT & Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque formally launched the digital media studio in a ceremony at the KPC on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion, Haque said that his political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), has always done its best to serve the masses while rising above all the ethnic and linguistic prejudices, and political affiliations of the people.

He said his political party has chosen the KPC to establish the first-ever facility in the country keeping in view the fact that the press club is an institution aimed at facilitating journalists and news media persons based in Karachi.

He also said he has come forward to set up the digital media studio without knowing which of the groups of journalists in Karachi has been managing the KPC’s affairs.

“I, in my capacity as the IT minister, have done whatever I can to establish this digital studio because these journalists belong to me,” he said, and hoped that the newly established studio will go a long way in facilitating the media persons in their professional duties.

He recalled that the MQM has always taken the initiative in raising its voice to highlight the problems of journalists in the country. He assured the participants of the ceremony that his party will never become a part of any process that can harm public interest.

Haque said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has been continuously ruling Sindh since the past 13 years, but during its regime it has treated the residents of the major cities of the province like a stepmother, while the civic infrastructures of these urban centres have also been ruined.

He said the people of Sindh have been forced to live in abject poverty, illiteracy, darkness and backwardness during the PPP’s rule. He urged the people to voice their concerns about the sheer injustices being committed during the PPP’s regime, otherwise Sindh will return to the Stone Age.

“Anybody who can should tell what projects have been undertaken by the Peoples Party in these 13 years for facilitating the life of a common man in the areas of health, education, road infrastructure, water supply and drainage.”

The minister said the Sindh government is under an obligation to inform the masses where it has spent the more than Rs1.8 trillion allocated in the past 13 years to carry out development projects. “How many hospitals, universities, roads have been built from these funds? The answer is zero.”

He claimed that the Sindh chief minister has neither shown any seriousness nor bothered to respond whenever the federal government has invited him to become a part of the development projects conceived for the province.

He said the MQM has a single ministry in the present coalition government set-up, adding that their IT ministry has carried out development projects of immense public benefit in all the four provinces without any discrimination, with such a public service by a government ministry being simply unmatchable.

He mentioned that over Rs3 billion is being spent to provide broadband internet connectivity to more than 3,000 underprivileged areas in 19 districts of Sindh, and that this initiative will benefit around 10 million people.

He said that over Rs5 billion is being spent to lay an optical fibre cable having the length of more than 1,905 kilometres to provide latest and swift IT services in 230 union councils of seven districts of the province.

He also said a project to build a state-of-the-art IT park in Karachi will be launched with a cost of Rs31 billion. It will employ thousands of people, while skilled workers associated with the IT sector will also get the chance through this facility to get connected with the outside world, he added.

Haque said the IT ministry has also been collaborating with the University of Karachi to build a 3D animation and graphics institute at KU’s Sheikh Zayed Islamic Centre where courses will be offered to the youth at much-discounted fees.

He said software technology parks have been established in Hyderabad, Sukkur and other cities of Sindh, providing opportunities to the skilled youngsters of the province to earn hundreds of thousands of rupees every month.

He also said that the latest incubation centre for the youth will be established in Hyderabad to help them launch start-ups. He added that 452,994 people of Sindh have got themselves registered with the digital skills programmes of the IT ministry for getting professional training.