Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been declared Most Progressive Telecom Regulator in South Asia for the year, while Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen has been recognized as Best Telecom Regulatory Leader of the Year. South Asian, Middle Eastern and North African (SAMENA) Telecommunication Council conferred these awards in its award ceremony held at Casablanca on 26-28 October 2010. It has announced awards in different categories for top performers amongst its member countries. Pakistan has received these awards in recognition of its competitive regulatory environments across the Region and unprecedented growth shown by the telecom sector of Pakistan. Chairman PTA won award in individual category while PTA won Best Performance award in Regulators awards.

It may be pertinent to mention here that SAMENA, a multi-continent telecom consortium, provides a unified, consensus-based platform and voice for leading operators and service providers in the South Asia/ Middle East/ North Africa region, in order to interact, network, and collaborate with each other and with regulatory bodies, ministries, manufacturers, and suppliers in an unbiased working environment. SAMENA's current network include, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Notably, however, organizations from countries of Asia Pacific, Europe and North America also form part of the SAMENA membership.

Dr. Mohammed Yaseen was appointed as Chairman PTA in July, 2008. He earned his PhD from University of Essex, United Kingdom with specialization in Telecommunication Systems. His brilliant educational back ground was rewarded by Ministry of Science & Technology's scholarship for Ph.D. After his Ph.D, he worked for the Essex University, UK, as Senior Research Officer, on projects funded by HP and European Consortium. Dr. Mohammed Yaseen has more than 30 international and national publications on telecom technologies especially broadband, ICT growth, strategies and design of telecom networks. He is contributing as Member in various International and National Committees and Boards for the progress of Telecom in Pakistan and Overseas.

 

(Khurram A. Mehran)

Dir (PR)