Is Telenor Officially Supporting PTI?: ProPakistani

Is Telenor Officially Supporting PTI?
Zong Appoints Sajid Mahmood as CCO
PTCL Launches SMS Complaint Service for Landline
InstaPhone License to be Auctioned in March 2012

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 09:06 PM PST

In countries like United States, businesses and generally corporate sector supporting political campaigns through donations is in practice for long. However, at times questions are raised when these corporations start influencing in policy making for the their respective sectors/domains.

To prevent this situation many countries have legislated terms for political financing to make sure that businesses are not benefited above the law and in any form in return of the funds they give to political parties.

In Pakistan, no such known phenomenon exists. Political parties can't get direct, indirect, public or any other type of funds from businesses for their election campaigns. In fact Election Commission of Pakistan has this rule clearly mentioned on its website, it says:

Any contribution made, directly or indirectly, by any foreign government, multi-national or domestically incorporated public or private company, firm, trade or professional association shall be prohibited and the parties may accept contributions and donations only from individuals.

Recently, Telenor's marketing campaigns seem aligned with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, through their Khamoshi ka Boycott, Rockstar song "Saada Haq Ithay Rakh" and other similar activates that somehow give the impression that company is quietly but officially supporting a certain political party, i.e. PTI.

For instance check this status update on Talkshawk's Facebook Page:

It won't be out of place to mention here that Shehzad Roy, Telenor's brand ambassador was seen performing Djuice youth anthem (Kiya Darta Hay) at PTI's Lahore Jalsa. Aamir Ibrahim, CMO at Telenor told me that company does not control anyone else's political affiliations; he said that this company policy applies to employees, partners and brand ambassadors alike. But people are for sure linking Telenor with PTI through Shehzad Roy's performance at PTI's Jalsa.

Then hefty advertisement campaign (valuing millions of rupees) for promoting just a CRBT of "Rockstar" (Saada Haq, Ithay Rakh) adds more questions to Telenor's policy of not maintaining any revolutionary thoughts.

This is not the first time we are pointing out Telenor's political involvement, in fact, ApnaTime did a story six months back raising questions over it's Khamoshi ka Boycott campaign.

I know all this is too vague, and one could give Telenor the benefit of the doubt that it is just promoting its products with a tagline which is somehow, maybe co-incidentally, aligned with PTI but let’s have a look at a tweet going out from Official Djuice Twitter account (which was later deleted by the company) that reveals the clear picture of Telenor's intents:

I leave this up to you to decide on the direction of Telenor's marketing and digital campaigns.

You can also share your thoughts on whether corporate sector involvement in political campaigns is something that should happen or not and the way corporations can possibly influence political decisions based on such support.

We also need to see how political involvement can backfire on organization under the head of political victimizations, especially in countries like Pakistan.

Just to mention again business are prohibited to support political parties as per Pakistani laws, at least as of now.

Zong Appoints Sajid Mahmood as CCO

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 07:10 PM PST

Sajid Mahmood, Chief Information Officer of Zong, China Mobile Pakistan, will now be leading the company in the capacity of Chief Commercial Officer as well, said a statement issued by the company.

He is already heading IT, Corporate Sales, Legal, Regulatory and OAS functions of the company. In effect, with these changes, Marketing, Sales & Distribution and Customer Services will also be reporting to Mr. Sajid.

On this appointment Zong's CEO Mr. Fan Yunjun commented, "The Company has been very fortunate to have outstanding employees who have shown great commitment to their work. Sajid Mahmood is an enthusiastic and hardworking person with flare for novelty and meticulousness. We are certain that he will bring more success to Zong."

CCO's position was freed by Mr. Zafar Usmani in June this year when he had resigned for domestic reasons.

Earlier we had heard that Zong might not fill CCO's slot and directors will be asked to report directly to CEO and this is why the slot was not filled for this long. Now with Mr. Sajid's appointment the company will keep working under the same administrational hierarchy as before.

Sajid has also been a member of China Mobile Pakistan Limited Board of Directors and Executive Management Team(EMT). He has diversified and wide experience in leadership, product/process development, strategic planning and organization operational efficiency.

To read more, click: Zong Appoints Sajid Mahmood as CCO
ProPakistani.PK

PTCL Launches SMS Complaint Service for Landline

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 07:00 PM PST

Read this post in Urdu

PTCL SMS Complaint Service PTCL Launches SMS Complaint Service for Landline PTCL has launched this new service that will enable its customers to register complaints via SMS from their cellular mobile phones.

PTCL says that objective behind offering this service is to eliminate of customers' wait time at call centers for complaint registrations and to offer a swift complaint registration channel to our Landline and Broadband customers.

How to Register PTCL Landline complaint via SMS:

Step 1 type : CMP
Step 2 type : Area code and landline number
Step 3 type : Product code

For Landline: LL
For Broadband: BB

Step 4: Send to 05 1218 1218
Step 5: Receive complaint registration number

Example:

<CMP>Space<Area code><Landline number>Space<Product Code>

A landline number 0423586 XXXX with complaint for broadband will send following text:

CMP 042 3586 XXXX BB

You can type "HELP" and send to 05 1218 1218 to get help on procedures for registering complaints via SMS.

InstaPhone License to be Auctioned in March 2012

Posted: 26 Dec 2011 06:58 PM PST

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has announced that it is likely to auction a 800 Mhz cellular license for Pakistan in March 2012.

Without revealing the modalities and procedures for the said auction, PTA said that this announcement is to alert the interested investor before time.

Announcement came after Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister of Pakistan, approved the auction of a cellular license freed by InstaPhone, during a cabinet meeting last month.

It was decided in meeting that new international players as well as existing operators would also be invited for Instaphpne license auction being the sixth of the existing licensee in the country and not a new licensee.

This auction, if goes successful, is believed to bring USD 291 million as inflows for government of Pakistan.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had earlier terminated InstaPhone's license in October 2008 for not paying the license renewal fee and other charges valuing more than Rs. 7.9 billion. InstaPhone had moved to IHC and then supreme court against PTA's determination to get a stay order on it.

However Both the appeals were dismissed by the court and PTA's determination was upheld. However, the court extended the date for making the outstanding payment by InstaPhone to 6 May 2009. InstaPhone license was eventually scrapped when company failed to make the due payment.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011