Daily Times

Prime Minister Justice (r) Nasirul Mulk on Friday while inaugurating the Pak-China Optical Fibre Cable project said that the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) was imperative for the socio-economic uplift of any country.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, the prime minister said the project executed under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would provide the first hand land-based connectivity to Pakistan lowering country’s dependence on the submarine cable.

The ceremony was also attended by Information Technology & Telecommunications Minister Yousaf Sheikh and Special Communication Organisation (SCO) Director General Major Amir Azim Bajwa and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing.

Completed within record period of two years, the project features the development of communication infrastructure of around 820 kilometres underground OFC from Rawalpindi to Khunjrab, 172km aerial OFC from Karimabad to Khunjrab to supplement in landslide prone areas. It also provides 26 high capacity microwave links as backup to OFC network and nine node centres in different locations along Rawalpindi-Khunjrab axis.

The prime minister, who earlier unveiled the plaque of the project by pushing the button, complimented the efforts of the workers of SCO and soldiers who executed the project successfully in one of the most difficult terrains of the world.

He viewed that the project would go a long way to develop telecom sector in the northern areas and lauded the role of the SCO for serving the people of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

The PM said Pakistan greatly valued its time-tested friendship with China and CPEC was one of the most important components of the One Belt & One Road initiative.

Published in Daily Times, July 14^th 2018.