Peshawar — The Universal Service Fund (USF) on Thursday, has awarded a contract worth Rs 90 million to Jazz Telecommunication under its broadband for sustainable development project in South Waziristan.
The contract signing ceremony took place between USF CEO Haris Mahmood Chaudhry and CCEO Jazz Syed Ali Naseer. As per the agreement, Jazz will work towards provision of inexpensive and reliable cellular access to people of South Waziristan.
USF CEO Haris Mahmood and CCEO Jazz Syed Ali Naseer signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Peshawar.
The newly signed projected will bring South Waziristan ICT facilities including 3G and 4G cellular data which was one of the keen demands of the people of South Waziristan.
Jazz will help bridge the gap between the urban and rural divide by providing high speed internet and other cellular services to more than 0.64 million people in 411 unserved villages in South Waziristan.
Federal Minister for IT and Telecomunication Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, newly elected MPA South Waziristan (Wana) Naseerullah Wazir, Special Assistant to CM KP on IT Kamran Bangash, CM KP’s Adviser on the merged tribal districts Ajmal Khan wazir and Signals Corps Brigadier Shahid was also present in the event.
MoIT Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said on the occasion that today was an era of information technology and the government was striving to connect all unserved areas including merged tribal districts with ICT services under the vision “Digital Pakistan.”
CM Adviser Ajmal Wazir said that today was landmark day in lives people of South Waziristan as the government has fulfilled yet another popular demands to provide reliable and speedy cellular communication services to tribal people.
MPA from the areas Naseerullah Wazir told Tribal Post that it was a historic day for the people of Waziristan, for which they waited and demanded for decades. He said, this will bring a huge change in the tribal district.
“This would connect us to the world and help us to get high speed internet in a single click besides bridging digital divide in South Waziristan,” MPA Naseer said, and added, it would create and discover more opportunities for our people.
Naseerullah Wazir told Tribal Post, our areas are enriched with the Asia’s best quality fruits and vegetables, different types of minerals and other resources but we had no opportunities to reach rest of the world.
“It’s my dream to see our youth to avail every opportunity and stay up-to-date using all the new media tools.”
Naseerullah Wazir
He said that extending ICT services to tribal areas would bring its people the power they need and to develop businesses.
Not only South or North Waziristan but all tribal districts (erstwhile Fata) have a long-standing demand of ‘giving them access to 3G/4G and broadband internet’.
The terrorism hit tribal areas still need to be fully enriched with modern technologies after Pakistan’s military forces carried out comprehensive military operations across the region.