Rana Farrukh

ISLAMABAD, DEC 8 – Referring to Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)’s upcoming public gathering in Lahore, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz Tuesday asked the citizens to stay away from its rallies to save their own and their families’ lives from the second wave of coronavirus pandemic.

Addressing a post-cabinet press briefing along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar, Shibli urged Lahoris and others to refrain from falling into the PDM leaders’ trap as they were liar and deceitful, and had nothing to do with the public welfare.

He said the PDM leaders did not bother about the ordinary people as they just wanted to use them for their own agendas and vested interests. Their level of sincerity with the people could be gauged from the Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari’s engagement in which the COVID-19 test was mandatory for the participants.

Once the rallies were over, they would not even help the people to get tested for the coronavirus, he added.

Their public gatherings were only meant to get relief in the corruption cases by building pressure on the government but they were mistaken as they had to meet their ultimate fate,” the minister said adding Prime Minister Imran Khan was an honest leader and would never compromise with them corruption cases.

He said the PDM leaders had looted the country with impunity bringing it at the brink of destruction and weakened the national institutions.

The opposition leaders during their tenure promoted nepotism and appointed their blue-eyed people on covet positions that eventually led to the massive brain drain of the country as competent people opted to move abroad for jobs, he added.

Shibli said when the PDM leaders were in the power, they took every possible step to weaken the country’s economy. They kept the economic trajectory upward with cosmetic measures and put the tough decisions under the carpet, he added.

He said people had rejected them in the last general elections for their corruption, but now they refused to accept the results, especially in those areas where they were lost.

ISLAMABAD, DEC 8 – Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman announced on Tuesday that all opposition lawmakers will submit their resignations to their respective party heads by December 31.

Rehman made the announcement at a press conference in Islamabad after the PDM leadership held a meeting to decide its future strategy. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz were joined by the JUI-F chief as he addressed the media.

“By December 31, opposition lawmakers from provincial and national assemblies will hand in their resignations to their respective party heads.”

He said that the steering committee will meet tomorrow to decide the schedule for further rallies and demonstrations. The meeting will also decide the time and the date for the long march towards Islamabad, he said.

The PDM chief said that former premier Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari also participated in the meeting during which all the participants expressed the commitment towards holding the next rally in Lahore on December 13.

Responding to reports about Prime Minister Imran Khan calling for a national dialogue, Rehman said the PDM had rejected his offer. “He is not worthy of dialogue.”

He said that the decisions were taken “unanimously”, adding that the opposition will not disappoint the people of the country. “The Lahore rally will be historic and it will be the final nail [in the coffin] for the government.”

DNA

ISLAMABAD – The 8th round of Pakistan-The Netherlands Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC) was held in the virtual format today. Special Secretary (Europe) Dr. Aman Rashid and Director-General for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands, Mr. Thijs van der Plas, led their respective delegations.

The two sides discussed the whole spectrum of bilateral relations, including political, economic, trade and investment, climate change, cooperation on multilateral issues as well as developments in their respective regions. While expressing satisfaction at the steady growth in bilateral ties, it was reiterated that high-level interactions were necessary for further strengthening relations. The two sides expressed satisfaction at the level of cooperation at international fora, including at the UN and agreed to continue supporting each other.

Dutch side was briefed on the Covid-19 situation in Pakistan and the steps being taken by the government to save lives and livelihoods. Special Secretary (Europe) noted that The Netherlands is a major trade partner of Pakistan in the European Union and encouraged the Dutch side to take advantage of the investment opportunities created by business-friendly policies of the government especially inareas like agriculture, renewable energy, and tourism. The Special Secretary appreciated Dutch support for Pakistan’s GSP Plus scheme and reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to the implementation of the 27 international conventions.

The two sides exchanged views on important global and regional issues.Special Secretary conveyed Pakistan’s concerns on the rise of xenophobia, particularly Islamophobia, in different parts of the world and stressed on the need to further promote inter-faith harmony.

The Dutch side was briefed on the Indian government’s discriminatory policies against minorities, and its illegal and unilateral actions in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) to alter its demographic structure, in contravention of the relevant UNSC resolutions and international law.Special Secretary (Europe)urged the Dutch side to stress upon India to lift the military siege, stop the ongoing gross violations of human rights in IIOJK, allow independent international organizations to carry out an inquiry, and take steps towards peaceful solution of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

The Dutch side was also briefed on Pakistan’s efforts aimed at supporting peace process in Afghanistan. Special Secretary (Europe) stated that Pakistan would continue to support the peace process for an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political solution, paving the way for a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan.

The two sides agreed to remain in contact to further enhance bilateral relations in all spheres of mutual interest.

ISLAMABAD, DEC 8 (DNA) – Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USC) established Information Technology (IT) infrastructure by establishing a modern data center with Private Cloud in its head office during the financial year, 2019-20.

The data center has the capacity to meet current and future IT infrastructure requirements and is the only data center in any Public Sector organization in Pakistan, built on OpenStack Cloud environment. Moreover, a robust data communication network is also established in its Head Office and office located in G-9 Markaz, Islamabad.

An international leading ERP System has been deployed on USC data center and customization of ERP system as per USC requirements is under process. All USC stores and warehouses will be automated and linked with central ERP System for real time sales and inventory management. All USC business processes including Supply Chain, Warehousing, Financials, HR, Payroll, and E-Commerce will be automated by June, 2021.

Once the ERP system implementation is completed purchasing activity will become a structured process whereby situation arising due to over or under stocking of inventory can be controlled. The whole inventory will be controllable and USC will be able to forecast amount of items needed, thus preventing both product shortages and overstocking.

Through automation of USC, synchronization of warehouses and retail outlets data into the centralized data center will provide a consolidated view of the corporation performance. The automation will help identifying trends in top selling items and locations. This will enable stocks to be moved with precision and achieve higher sales volumes. Also the automation will enable USC to start targeted subsidy for the poorest segment of the society with the surety that subsidy is dispersed to the right individuals.

The automation will provide greater business insights through more accurate and timely financial information. It will help USC to save operating cost. Since repetitive and time-consuming processes will be automated. USC will be able to forecast its income and expenses more accurately and budgeting can be done in a better and cost effective manner.

Recording prices of products along with discounts/subsidy will help USC to control prices. Also, centralized sales monitoring will bound store staff for timely sales deposits.

A pilot project of deployment of Point of Sale (POS) system is successfully executed initially at 10 Utility Stores. Data transformation of all USC saleable items with barcodes to be used with warehousing and POS system is also completed. The POS system is ready for future expansion and has an attribute of quicker development and fast rollout.

The objectives of pilot POS system deployment was introducing technology and system to improve acceptability; transformation of all Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) of the corporation to a new integrated system; identification of problems and issues in automation of the corporation; identifying and removing barriers in stores’ automation; bringing cultural change and training people to use new system efficiently. All USC SKUs are also digitized with barcodes to be used with warehousing and POS system.

USC has also introduced Online Vendor Registration System to collect and maintain accurate suppliers’ data for efficient vendors’ management.

Other initiatives during the year 2019-20 includes deployment of an Online Stores Information System by geo-tagging all Utility Stores. This online system helps to get the stores’ information including location, size, rent, and sales during the last 5-year.

USC has implemented a Demand-based Online Purchase Ordering System integrated with Finance Payable System. Through this system, a huge amount of time and money is saved in managing suppliers payments as per goods received. Also, complete supply chain process becomes simpler, from purchasing goods from suppliers, shipping to stores and selling to the customers.

A centralized employees’ leaves and attendance system through Facial Recognition Machines have been deployed which are working effectively in all USC offices. This attendance system has helped USC in managing its payroll in an efficient and effective way.

Mr. Umer Lodhi, Managing Director USC said that in our efforts to uplift standards of services at all utility stores across the country and provision of grocery items at prices lower than the open market, automation is being under implementation in USC.

While talking about automation, Mr. Shakeel Ahmed, General Manager, IT USC said that we are automating the corporation with an aim to make it compatible with the needs of 21st century and developing USC employees’ skills in a way to work efficiently in a fully automated environment, making the corporation a profitable entity.  Our mission is to provide the corporation with technology solutions and unparalleled customer services, he added.=DNA

=================