MOU signed by EME and Nokia Siemens Networks

Taking learning beyond class rooms

The College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (C of E&ME), the largest constituent college of National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) in Pakistan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nokia Siemens Networks to provide its students with industry exposure and insights into the latest in telecom technologies. The association is in line with Nokia Siemens Networks’ commitment to contribute to development of higher technical education in the country and sets a precedent for many such similar tie-ups.

Commenting on the partnership, Commandant of College of E&ME, Major General Shahid, said, “Against the back drop of a rapidly growing telecom sector, it is important to supplement our curriculum with sessions conducted by experts in the field - this is the best way to bring our students up to speed with the industry they will enter in the next few years.” He also impressed upon the students to participate ardently and make best out of this partnership by coming up with innovative solutions. He briefly introduced the college and informed the audience that it is due to the committed faculty students of college that multinationals get talented engineers form the college.

Under the scope of the new partnership, senior managers from Nokia Siemens Networks will conduct lectures for the Electrical and Computer Engineering students of E&ME College. In addition to offering a scholarship program to two selected students, Nokia Siemens Networks will also provide internship opportunities to two students per semester, imparting to them valuable hands-on experience.

Adds Saad M. Waraich, Country Director for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Nokia Siemens Networks, “As a corporate that has had a presence in the country for the past 50 years, we are in a position to leverage. “

A total of five in-class modules, of which four will be in mobile networks and one in fixed networks will be provided as part of the program. The four Mobile Network modules will include Mobile Networks Today, Evolution towards 3G, Future of Mobile Networks, Implementation, Project Management & Network Care. The Fixed Networks module will include topics like Evolution from PSTN to Next Generation Networks and Broadband Access, Transmission & IP Core. An additional module will be based on a visit to the Nokia Siemens Networks’ Telecoms Expertise facility at Islamabad.

All these module sets will be delivered within the span of one semester. E&ME students will also benefit from the three Web Based Training modules that Nokia Siemens Networks will install on the university’s platform. These modules will be accessible via the internet and will shed insight into Mobile Networks like GSM, UMTS and HSDPA.



OH yes 27 Electrical will have the lectures at the very start.

The Consequent is as bad as the Antecedent

There is a lot of talk about the Long March and restoration of the "essence" of democracy these days. Though this may not be the most "politically correct" time to say all this, I present below my point of view over all this crap.



Quoting Iqbal, (from "Iblees ki majlis-e-shura"). The first advisor to Satan is quoted as saying:

A good point well, my seeing eye hails,
No danger too there from a kingship’s veil.

We gave to kingship the masses rule’s dress,
Self conscious now is man with self’s ingress.

The kingship science has a different sense,
It needs not a garb of a monarch hence.

May be Nation’s Council or Kaiser’s court,
A king’s eye craves a foreign land or port.

Didn’t you see western democratic track,
Whose face is shining but inner is black.

Now, we are fighting for such a system of government. Whereas, we should (being the 'learned' elite) fight for the just system - Islam.

Democracy and dictatorship have failed to deliver in our country. Democracy is an object of the elite while dictatorship is destined towards an end. Whenever a dictator takes over, the democrats want to see his back. While, a democracy has never survived its intended tenure.

It is not hidden from anyone how Iqbal has criticized nationalism. Of the greatest idols present in Ka'aba, at the time of ignorance, Hubal was the greatest. Today's Hubal is nationalism. It is a cancer for this Ummah and Muslims. We shouldn't be fighting, then, for democracy should we? We'd rather be fighting for the restoration of a single Islamic government. "Islamic" would have caused some goosebumps to rise up. Now, by the "Islamic Government" I mean the following (at least):-

1. Freedom of movement (no passports, no borders).
2. Single Economy (based on the Islamic standards of Gold and Silver plus no to Interest in all its forms. The earth's resources are Muslim property).
3. Single Military (Pakistan's military supremacy should be useful to the Palestinians, Chechans, Somalians etc. etc. The Nuclear Bomb is surely, an "Islamic Bomb").
4. Single Foreign Policy (never repeat - NEVER - what we did to the Palestinians living in Gaza in Dec. 2008).

These four points (I think) are readily implementable. There should be no doubt that such a solution will ultimately get the Ummah back to its long lost glory!

So, am I discouraging anyone from going to the Long March? No. Join the March for some Rule of Law.

But our struggle shouldn't end here. We shouldn't fall prey to nationalism and democracy. It is our belief that Muslims should live as a Jama'a. If a wealthy country such as Saudi Arabia does nothing to relieve the poor masses in another country, then we will perhaps, be replaced by better people (for the record, I believe that before this year's over, the Sheikhs would become poor; I would pray for this not to happen, though). And in Pakistan's case, we are responsible for the sufferings of all oppressed Muslim nations in the world today because this following Ayah seems to have been sent down specifically for us:-

“And what is the matter with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and for the oppressed among men, women, and children who say, “O Lord, take us out of this city of oppressive people and appoint for us from Yourself a protector and appoint for us from Yourself a helper”?” [al-Nisa 75]

We Pakistanis - proud and arrogant of our nuclear and missile technology - are responsible for the protection then, of Chechens, Afghans, Iraqis, Gujaratis, Palestinians, and all others because we are the only ones today who have the strength. Do we really want Allah to take this blessing away from us?

Drones parked in our own backyard, to Bomb our own People

http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2009/02/18/drones-parked-in-pakistan

In a shocking discovery reports have emerged from simply Google Earth images evidence of three drones parked on an airfield in some remote destination within Baluchistan, the images were captured by orbiting satellites and archived within Google Earth data warehouse to suddenly be discovered recently. Though there is no denying that during the Musharraf regime bases were rented out to the American army costing them a massive deficit to the tune of $10 Billion. But what probably irks the nation is that the Pakistani government have categorically denied that the Pakistani bases are being used to launch drones-
Omar Qureshi who writes for The News broke this discovery locally in Pakistan

The picture of the drones on the Pakistani soil, taken in 2006, has three drones, all Global Hawks. The picture has coordinates and they can be vaguely read as 27 degrees, 51 minutes North; 65 degrees, 10 minutes East. These coordinates place the strip not far from the nearby Jacobabad airbase which is around 28 degrees north, 68 degrees east.
One can easily verify the authenticity of the picture taken in 2006 with the 2009 image found online on Google Maps by merely inserting the above coordinates [or follow this LINK] in satellite mode

The Times Online also carried the report

The CIA is secretly using an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, a Times investigation has found. The Pakistani and US governments have repeatedly denied that Washington is running military operations, covert or otherwise, on Pakistani territory — a hugely sensitive issue in the predominantly Muslim country.
The Pakistani Government has also repeatedly demanded that the US halt drone attacks on northern tribal areas that it says have caused hundreds of civilian casualties and fuelled anti-American sentiment. But The Times has discovered that the CIA has been using the Shamsi airfield — originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions in the southwestern province of Baluchistan — for at least a year. The strip, which is about 30 miles from the Afghan border, allows US forces to launch a Drone within minutes of receiving actionable intelligence as well as allowing them to attack targets further afield

But it all started a few days earlier when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee commented on 13th of February that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an air base in Pakistan. The disclosure also marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

The CIA declined to comment, but former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Feinstein’s account was accurate.

While Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, said Feinstein’s comments put Pakistan’s government on the spot.

If accurate, what this says is that Pakistani involvement, or at least acquiescence, has been much more extensive than has previously been known,” he said. “It puts the Pakistani government in a far more difficult position [in terms of] its credibility with its own people. Unfortunately it also has the potential to threaten Pakistani-American relations.

Chowrangi very rightly sums up the dilemma facing the people of Pakistan

But now the cat is out of the bag. So that is once more proved that how much regard American and our own government has for the people who reside in Pakistan. Their lives are of no value and our own government is involved in the killings. What a shame and what a sorry state of affairs. Another lie of our president has been caught and nobody knows how many more are on the way

For now the Government of Pakistan has a lot of explaining to do and just mere diversion tactics towards Musharraf might alone not help their case