DNA

ISLAMABAD, JUL 15 – Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the country’s leading telecom and ICT services provider, has announced its financial results for the six months ended June 30, 2020 at its Board of Directors’ meeting held in Islamabad on July 15, 2020.

After the onset of Covid-19 pandemic earlier this year, the country is witnessing a gradual come back to a new ‘normal’ in which the economic activities are carefully being resumed while adhering to due counter measures for containing the effects of the pandemic. With its extensive network footprint, PTCL has successfully played its role as the communication backbone of the country in these testing times. Our dedicated frontline workers, who have been continuously on the ground despite the pandemic and our diligent customer care teams have ensured uninterrupted service delivery for our valued customers.

PTCL Group’s revenue of Rs 62.9 Billion for the half-year is lower by 5% as compared to the same period of last year. If normalized for the impact of Covid-19 and certain regulatory changes affecting Ufone, PTCL Group’s revenue is 2.5% higher than 2019 on a like-for-like basis. U Bank, a microfinance banking subsidiary of PTCL, continued its growth momentum and has achieved a 45% growth in its revenue over last year. The Group’s operating profit and bottom line have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and rupee devaluation.

PTCL’s revenue of Rs 35.3 Billion for the half-year is 1% lower than last year. If normalized for the impact of Covid-19, the like-for-like revenue is stable and slightly higher than the same period of last year.

PTCL witnessed an exponential growth in the internet traffic during the pandemic which was facilitated through timely expansion at Content Delivery Network (CDN) domain to improve customer experience and optimize international bandwidth. As the pandemic still continues to be a challenge for Pakistan, PTCL ensured connectivity for more people with its wireline and wireless products during this quarter which has resulted in improved Charji revenues, along with addition of more than 15 thousand fixed broadband customers in Q2, 2020.

PTCL was able to curtail the churn rate, convert more customers to digital payments and resolve more than 50% complaints on spot through its efficient Customer Services by focusing on customer experience and engagement. To enhance the overall customer experience, PTCL has taken various customer centric initiatives during this year. These include the adoption of Nokia Service Management Platform for effective service delivery, improved line stability through dynamic line management, enhanced customer communications and reduction in overall fault resolution time. During the second quarter of 2020, the Company’s mean time to resolve the customer complaints was well above 90% of the service level i.e. to resolve the complaints within 24 hrs.

Corporate and Wholesale businesses continued their growth momentum and have achieved an 8% overall revenue growth YoY. This has been possible through PTCL’s leading market position in IP Bandwidth and its strong presence in Managed Services, Cloud and other ICT services segments. Similarly, international revenue has also shown 6% growth as compared to the same period last year.

PTCL’s Operating Profit of Rs 1.4 billion and Net Profit After Tax of Rs 2.7 billion for the half-year have declined as compared to last year due to effects of Covid-19 pandemic, increase in operating costs and higher depreciation on fixed assets as a result of significant capital expenditure on network upgrade in the last year. However, increase in non-operating income on account of disposal of obsolete assets that had become redundant due to upgrade of legacy exchanges and fiberization of access network, has helped lessen the gap at the bottom-line level with comparative period.

PTCL has undertaken a comprehensive Covid-19 relief and support effort to help people in these difficult times. In addition to assisting customers with reduced tariffs, free access to government helplines and digital awareness campaigns, PTCL Group donated Rs 100 million and PTCL employees have contributed their two days’ salary to the Prime Minister’s Covid-19 Relief Fund. PTCL has provided support to Shaukat Khanum Research Center, collaborated with Pakistan Red Crescent Society and provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Seven thousand deserving families, all across Pakistan, were facilitated with monthly ration in Ramzan. PTCL has taken all necessary measures to ensure the health and safety of its employees through provision of protective gears, etc.  PTCL Razaakar Trust continues to assist its non-management staff, infected with the Coronavirus, with a month’s worth of ration items.

The management and employees of PTCL remain committed to provide quality services, through concerted efforts, to our valued customers.

DNA

Islamabad, July 15: Chairman HEC Tariq Banuri has condoled the death of the Vice Chancellor of Nishtar Medical University, Prof. Mustafa Kamal Pasha, who passed away in Multan on Wednesday due to COVID-19.

Mr. Banuri, on behalf of higher education fraternity, sent heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, faculty and students. He prayed for the departed soul and his family and said that the “thoughts of entire academic community are with his family at this sorrowful time.”

Dr. Pasha had tested positive for Covid-19 last month, and had been admitted to a private clinic, from where he was shifted to the Multan Institute of Cardiology (MIC). He had been on a ventilator for several days.

Dr Mustafa Kamal Pasha was a famous surgeon who stopped office work when the number of coronavirus patients increased and started performing ward duty. As head of Nishtar Medical University, Dr. Pasha made all possible efforts to ensure that undergraduate and postgraduate students are provided with quality teaching and training, and promoted a culture of research and ethical orientation. He always urged the students and faculty members to rise to their potentials, identify their strengths and directed to acquire much needed lifelong learning skills for academic and social pursuits.

DNA

ISLAMABAD: July 15, 2020: Justice (RETD) Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB has said that corruption is the root cause of all evils. NAB is absolutely committed to nab corrupt elements as the logical conclusion of mega corruption white collar crime cases is top most priority of NAB. The Chairman NAB said that NAB’s faith is Corruption free Pakistan which is in line with its national anti corruption strategy of Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement.

He said that NAB is the focal organization of Pakistan under United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) as Pakistan is signatory of UNCAC. World Economic Forum and Transparency International Pakistan, PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan have lauded NAB’s performance in eradication of corruption. He said that NAB’s Operation, Prosecution, Human Resource Development, Training and Research and Awareness and Prevention have been rejuvenated in order to further improve their performance.

The Chairman NAB said that NAB’s prime focus is on corruption and corrupt practices i.e.; money laundering,  misuse of authority, cases of cheating the public at large, bank frauds, willful bank loan defaults and embezzlement of state funds etc. He said that the overall complaints in 2019 were 53643 and processed 42760 whereas complaints in 2018 were 48591 and processed 41414. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trust in the NAB. NAB during 2019, processed 1308 complaint verifications, 1686 inquiries and 609 investigations and recovered Rs 141.542 billion from corrupt elements in 2019 and NAB’s accumulative success ratio is about 68.8 percent which is a remarkable achievement in investigation of White Collar Crimes in the world. He said that NAB has recovered Rs.466.069 billion from corrupt elements since its inception and deposited in national exchequer.

He said that NAB has introduced a new concept of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer, Legal Counsel, financial and land revenue experts has been put in place besides establishing its own state of the art Forensic Science Laboratory in NAB Rawalpindi which has facilities of Digital Forensics, Questioned Documents and Fingerprint Analysis. In 2019, 15747 questioned documents and 300 thumb impressions were analyzed in 50 cases and forensic analysis was carried out on 74 digital devices (Laptops, Mobile phones, Hard Disks etc). He said that NAB is the Chairman of SAARC anti-corruption forum. NAB is considered as a role model among SAARC countries. He said that Pakistan’s Apex Anti Corruption Agency, NAB is the only Organization in the world with whom China has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to oversee projects to be undertaken under CEPC in Pakistan. He said that signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Pakistan and China is especially significant in the backdrop of increasing economic and trade cooperation between Pakistan and China with the resolve by both the Governments to work in a fair, impartial and corruption free environment in order to share their experiences to eradicate corruption. He directed all DGs of NAB Regional Bureaus to conduct all complaint verification, inquiries and investigations on the basis of solid evidence as per law.