Adding the e into Elections:Umair Naeem
Sunday, February 24, 2008 7:18Finally, the much awaited Elections have come and gone. Fortunately for Pakistan, they went by without any major incident, although the political aftermath is something that we shall continue to face for a while. But leaving aside the political repercussions, elections are always an event that is driven by numbers; both pre and post polls.
Before the actual casting of the votes, all relevant parties need to know the polling numbers, and of course, after the ballot, it’s all about the counting. A cursory glance at the ongoing US presidential elections can show one how the event can fuel the very imagination of a country.
Going back to the numbers, the need of the hour was for up to date information, and this time around, the Pakistan media was well prepared to handle the information dissemination. Up until a day before the elections, their remained a feeling in the air that PEMRA would try to curb the news channels by trying to control the news of the results, but nothing of the sort materialized on the big day.
With every TV channel getting on the election bandwagon, it was simply a matter of personal taste and choosing as to where the channel surfing would end, but largely, GEO News once again showed that it is still the most trusted source of news in the country.
The key, though, was real time information, and the internet proved to be a key medium in ensuring the said. GEO once again showed their mettle by having up-to-the minute results and national assembly standings on their website. DAWN did pretty well too, in this area, and it is pretty obvious that the other news media will need to build a lot of equity if they are to displace Geo and Dawn in Urdu and English news superiority.
The upcoming GEO English will further be an interesting addition to the battle. I should also add that this again illustrates the importance of ensuring a useful website when you want to be known as a trusted medium of information. A number of News channels should take a leaf out of Dawn and GEO news.
The true underrated winner, though, came out to be the Election Commission of Pakistan. Their website, at http://www.ecp.gov.pk/, was very impressive. They offered localized Urdu content as well as English, and the surfers could access a number of resources.
You could check out if your name was registered in the voters list for a particular area, or find out about the candidates that you could be voting for. It also offered details of the results of each seat of the National Assembly. It was a worthwhile site to visit, and was pretty encouraging, considering that e-government is something that we still have a way to go to achieve.
A little away from the elections, I was pleased to read that Gartner, a top IT Research and Advisory Company, named Pakistan in the First Category of countries suitable for Offshore outsourcing. This is an improvement from our position in Category Three in 2006.
In a recent report, Gartner described Pakistan as a potential Market Leader and Challenger. The reasons why, the report said, revolved around lower salaries for IT personnel, and better infrastructure than other offshore destinations. All in all, this bodes well for the Pakistan IT industry, although if we want to keep our best minds in the country, be it in any field, we will need to improve the remuneration package that we give to them.
And of course, how can we go on without my ‘Rant of the Week’? This time round, it is dedicated for the ridiculous lack of customer service at the DHA 26th Street Warid Franchise outlet. On a Saturday afternoon, the shop had only one available customer ‘support’ personnel, who had no information about a particular international call rate permutation and also had no connectivity to any other Warid Franchise or personnel who could have helped out. The said Franchise did not even have Internet connectivity, so as to confirm the particular call rate online. One word: Ludicrous. In this day and age of rising consumerism, it leaves one scratching one’s head at the lack of professionalism that still unfortunately exists.
That’s about all for this week, so stay safe and take care!
