OPEN (Silicon Valley) Holds Seminar

re:#11 by aqazi
I wish you well. I would like to see Pak develop more in IT (Information Technology) and get out of the other IT business (International Terrorism). There is much scope for the 2 countries to develop and benefit from each other. This is not a zero sum game. IT pie is huge and there is something in it for everyone.
Having said all that, i would like to say that much of the boom that you see today in India is due to the seeds sown 20 years ago. All this does not happen in a day. A critical mass is reached after efforts put in over many years. IITs in india spearheaded the IT revolution. Many private institutions like NIITs have contributed immensely. Just my thoughts.
Sridhar

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Speaking of Pakistani US organizations that have started and stagnated, here are a few examples:

www.dareecha.org (started out with a huge bang. however the pages and articles on this site haven`t been changed for over two years. the ones under construction are still under construction, after two years)

www.dastak.org (used to get updated regularly. its event section hasn`t changed for six months)

PESA (have no idea where it went)

The next one is the best:

www.pak2000.org (this used to be really interesting, with info on functions regarding a lot of big shot Pakistanis. it is now a porn site. i cannot believe it. i went to the site, and BANG. for a minute, i thought Pakistanis had finally figured out how to make money on the internet (maybe the new minister did his homework). but it seems like the site has either been broken into, or Musharraf`s plans to liberalize Pakistan have gone a bit to far:))

Ras: ``You want to volunteer?``

Thanks for the offer. I am already associated with quite a few Pakistani organizations. They are very impressive when they start, and then quite depressing when they get stale, people lose interest, and they die off. Hopefully Open will be different. I will see if I can get in touch with Imran H. Khan, the founding member of Open. We went to the same PAF college.

AQazi: One of the best things Musharraf did was to appoint Dr. Atta as the Minister of S&T. He is perhaps the most accomplished scientist of Pakistan and headed the one of the few internationally recognized scientific research institutes of Pakistan. I met him in San Jose, and was quite impressed.

However, he is no longer the Minister. In Pakistan, Science and Tech. is the domain of the biggest South Punjab feudals. Before Dr. Atta, one of the minsters of S&T was Abida Hussein - a stud farming feudal with only a high shcoll education when she was appointed the minister. Now the minister of S&T is the son of Farooq Leghari, Awais Leghari - an even bigger south Punjab feudal. Legharis literally own the constituencies that they compete from. Amongst feudals, they are probably the more decent ones. But what in the world do they know about science? I am sure I know more about science than he does.

S&T ministry is given generally to feudals who need to be included in the govt., to get their influence. The following bio data comparison between the ex-minister and the current one, will indicate that Pakistan`s IT hopes may have been short lived (it was good while it lasted). Awais Leghari would not get an entry level job in any science field in the US (or Pakistan). I wouldn`t hire the guy. Dr. Atta was an international level scientist.

Welcome to democracy in Pakistan - feudal style.

Ex-Minister of S&T and New Minister
-----------------------------------------

``Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, Director
Sc. D. (Cantab.), Ph. D. (Organic Chemistry, Cambridge University), N. I., H. I., S. I., T. I., UNESCO Laureate, Chairman Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Coordinator General COMSTECH, President Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Minster for Science and Technology and Minster of Education.

Over 450 research publications in top international journals, ten patents, and 60 books, written or edited, published and circulated internationally. Editor-in-Chief of seven European science journals.

Research interests include synthesis of natural products; chemistry of bioactive secondary metabolites, development and use of modern NMR spectroscopic methods; search for new enzyme inhibitors, and microbial transformation of bioactive chemical compounds.`` (http://www.hej.edu/html/body_faculty.html)

``Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari

Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari the Federal Minister for IT & Telecommunications, Government of Pakistan hails from a notable political family of Dera Ghazi Khan, an underdeveloped area of the southern Punjab. Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari was born on 22nd March 1971.

Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari had his early education at Aitchison College Lahore. He passed Higher Senior Cambridge Examination in 1988. For higher studies Mr. Leghari got admission in University of Rochester, New York State USA from where he graduated in 1994 with Economics (Game Theory) and Political Science as major subjects.

Having equipped himself with the latest education and knowledge of both development and politics, Mr. Awais Leghari being member of a political family actively engaged in the socio-economic developmental issues of the area as well as country, entered the political electoral arena in 1997. He contested and won the Provincial Assembly Election in 1997 from Rajanpur as an independent candidate.

On the founding of Millat Party on 14th August, 1998 Mr. Awais Leghari became a member. He contested the October 2002 Elections from the platform of NA. He has the honour of being elected from two seats, a National Assembly seat from Dera Ghazi Khan and a Provincial Assembly seat from Rajanpur.

Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari is married. Besides agriculture which is both his hobby and means of income Mr. Leghari is fond of hunting and plays tennis. `` (http://pakistan.gov.pk/itandtelecom-ministry/aboutministry/minister.jsp)

--- One would hope that a minister of IT and science should have at least done one days work in IT and/or science. Taking Basic Science 101 at Rochester shouldn`t qualify someone for such a post.

Then people ask, why Pakistan lags behind in S&T......

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#6 Romair: Yes you are correct. There are plenty more Pakistanis in IT industry all over the Bay area. The people who live here in norther cali KNOW the truth. Just because there`s a lot of hype about Indians only, we Pakistanis sometimes underestimate our own contribution and participation in all aspects of IT industry here in the US. Proportionately speaking, I think we are fine in about the same numbers as Indians in US. I know this from my own personal experiences and acquaintances.

About a couple of years back, I was also involved with a failed attempt to start a company. In the process, I visited Pakistan and met with the IT Minister(Dr. Atta) PTA Chairman(equivalent of US FCC) and the PSEB chairman. I can assure you that although we are starting late, we are not going to be too long before we catchup(proportionately, population ratio wise). Everyone in the Industry knows that techonology changes at a fast pace, and yesterday`s cutting edge becomes todays garbage. So just because Pakistan didnt jump in at the first stage doesnt mean that the future cannot be very bright. Thats the beauty of IT. Judging by the high numbers of IT professionals and Technicians Pakistan will start churning out in the next 2-5 years, I am pretty sure that somehow, someway, Pakistan will put its IT industry on the world map.

Ref Romair #6

[Safi Qureshi is probably the most successful South Asian in the IT industry.]

Will you please make that Pakistani as opposed to South Asian?

I just wanted to add the name of Vinod Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems to the list.

By the way, all the names I mentioned are/were in your backyard of Bay Area. Including that Chatsworth, CA (LA suburb) floppy-drive maker who got his MBA from San Jose State.

Ref Romair #6

[Safi Qureshi is probably the most successful South Asian in the IT industry. The company he founded, owned, and ran was a Fortune 500 company. I am not sure if any other South Asian founded company in the IT industry has ever achieved such success. He is a philanthrapist now in Pakistan, as well as a VC in US and Pakistan.]

Don`t mean to rain on your parade but how much money did Safi Qureshi manage to take home from AST?

When AST was making PCs, there was a Punjabi (Indian) who made floppy drives in Chatsworth, CA, who made it to the Forbes list of 400 Richest Men in America. He was offering floppy drives for the first time for under $400 in the mid-1980`s -- yep, the same crap that today goes for $19 at Fry`s so you know he is not in the business anymore.

Am I right in saying a guy named Iftikhar Ahmad founded that removable hard-disk company in Fremont (now defunct) after his success at Shugart Associates?

More recently, Ajay Shah who founded Smart Modular Technology is sitting on a huge pile of cash after selling his company to Solectron. His holdings were 28% and the selling price should be public info so that you can figure out how huge that pile of cash is (though he actually got Solectron stock rather than cash).

KB Chandrasekhar who founded Exodus Communications is supposed to have made $130 million or so and his buddy and co-founder went on to fund WebMD too. Sabhir Bhatia got a sizeable part of the $400 million that Microsoft paid for Hotmail.

Lastly, Tyabji (that rare species, the Indian Muslim in IT, oops, not so rare when you add Iftikhar Ahmad) who founded Verifone sold it to HP for some billion dollars and should have taken home a few hundred million bucks.

I just want to re-emphasize the importance of such events and to congratulate Nazim Kareemi, Cyrus Bamji and Abbas Rafii of Canesta,
the company featured at this event for the two page spread that it
has generated in the January 2003 Scientific American (that arrived today in my mailbox).

Romair #6, my work for the Pakistani community will continue as long as there are so few others that are in this arena.

You want to volunteer?

Ras

Ras, you should continue covering events like this. They provide a good alternative to many of the other articles presented here on Chowk.

I know quite a few of the people who are on the various committees in Open. It actually started in the US Northeast (I think its founder was an retired PAF engineer, who is now in the USA - I should track him down).

It is good to see these organizations come to life. Unfortunately, they start out with a bang and then never go anywhere. Their websites don`t even get updated. The dareecha.org site, the dastak.org site, the pesa site are completely stagnant and stale. Infact, Chowk is one of the few sites that has a good business model, and is going along fine.

Pakistani IT people in the USA got into the industry, in large numbers, about ten years after the Indians had gotten in in large numbers. Most of the Pakistanis in the industry are thus in their 20s and 30s. While Indians are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and even 50s. So in ten years, you will start seeing a lot of Pakistanis in VP/CEO positions, like Indians. Currently, Pakistanis are Directors etc.

Other than Pakistanis and Indians (about 9 times as many Indians in US IT as Pakistanis - infact, there are probably more Indian women in IT in the US than Pakistani men), one never sees anyone else from South Asia (a few Sri Lankans). Where are all the Bangladeshis? The two rarest species in the IT industry (who should be there) are Indian Muslims and Pakistani females.

It is good to see people like Kanwal Rekhi participate in these functions. I have never met him, but have followed some of the things he does. Seems like a very apolitical Indian. He actually went to Karachi and Lahore, met with Musharraf, to start the Pakistani chapters of TiE. What did you think of him? He is one Indian I would like to meet. If he is from Rawalpindi, then he must be a Punjabi speaker. The Punjabi speaking Indians and the South Indians are quite interesting. Its the non-Punjabi speaking and non-South Indians that cause all the problems :-) (this should get a discussion going on this thread). His comment on, ``luck`` is insightful and accurate.

Safi Qureshi is probably the most successful South Asian in the IT industry. The company he founded, owned, and ran was a Fortune 500 company. I am not sure if any other South Asian founded company in the IT industry has ever achieved such success. He is a philanthrapist now in Pakistan, as well as a VC in US and Pakistan.

Khan # 4: Thanks.

aqazi #5 : Sorry that we could not meet. I live quite far away from downtown and had to take off before the Senator Ortiz dinner program ended so I could make it home before the program ``Muhammad, Legacy of a Prophet`` started.
The Ortiz program report will be in Pakistan Link next Friday and not on CHOWK. I will also send it to Pakistan.

Ras

#Ras: Ras Sahab, seems to me that whenever there`s a positive aspect of Pakistani community highlighted, all the habitual Pakistan critics disappear. To them, the only interest they have in Pakistan is unabated bashing of everything Pakistani. Kudos to the Pakistani IT community for establishing and promoting IT within Pakistan as well as here in Norther California. Inshallah, the way things are going in Pakistan and here, we can only look forward to a bright future ahead.

By the way, will you be covering the CAIR/Senator Ortiz Eid dinner here? It was good to see you there, and I apologize that I couldnt come up and give my Salaams to you :).

Thanks for a great report Ras!