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Computers for educational institutions IT wizard working on low-cost solution

NASIR SIDDIQUI

KARACHI: Safi Qureshi, co-founder and former CEO of AST Research Inc. USA, is probing the possibility of setting up non-profit organisations in Pakistan and USA that would facilitate the transfer of second-hand computers from the United States to Pakistani educational institutions.

Talking to Business Recorder at a local hotel on Monday he said the proposal, still in its nascent stage, envisages the purchase and collection of second-hand computers in USA and their shipment to Pakistan for supply to educational institutions here.

The arrangement, if implemented, would be a low cost solution for generally cash-strapped educational institutions and would go a long way toward promoting the IT culture in these institutions.

Safi Qureshi says the project would be managed and implemented in the private sector and, considering the fact that it is being planned on a non-profit basis, he would expect duty waivers from the Pakistan government on the import of these computers and their components.

Safi Qureshi said there is much talk in Pakistan about information technology but little understanding of the prospects of the internet revolution sweeping the world and the way it is affecting the future of business and industry.

He lamented that Pakistan was lagging far behind in the visionary planning required for the spread of the IT culture in the country. Even trade and industry do not appear conscious of the changes taking place in the developed and even developing countries in the spheres of the internet and new information technologies that are revolutionising the methodology of conducting and managing business.

Safi Qureshi said internet access was too slow and too costly in Pakistan and if the issue was not attended on a war footing he saw no future for the promotion of information technology in Pakistan.

To connect and inter-link businesses, banks, educational institutions, communication services, utilities and government organisations and institutions into a composite whole for meeting the challenges of the new millennium, the first requisite is affordable and abundant bandwidth.

He said if public-sector institutions continue to think of revenue setbacks likely to accrue in the event of easing internet access controls, they would be doing a long-term disservice to the nation for their own short-term gains. Such an attitude needs to be reversed.

Safi Qureshi said he had met the heads of several prestigious institutions in Pakistan, including the IBA and LUMs, to discuss his computers-for-educational institutions project.

He said he had gone to discuss with them the spread of information technology but right now the problem confronting them most was the brain drain. He said they were seized with the grave problem of faculty creation and replenishment for imparting education.

This, Safi Qureshi said, was, indeed a great problem and educational institutions in Pakistan would have to devise novel ways of attracting faculty members.

One way, he said, could be to offer incentives for specialists outside to come to Pakistan to teach for, say, three or six months.