Benazir’s Blackberry sets found

KARACHI: Interior Ministry has recovered two Blackberry handsets of Benazir Bhutto from the servants of Bilawal House.

When contacted, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) confirmed the reports regarding recovery of Benazir Bhutto’s cell-phones that were lost in Liaquat Bagh Rawalpindi on the day of her assassination.

The investigative agencies were on the look for these mobile phones for three years.

The spokesman said they have not received the sets as yet, adding the records from the mobile phones will be extracted as soon as they are here.

Sources said the information from these mobile phones could provide some important clues and even breakthrough leading to the real culprits behind her assassination. TrendPK

Street crime on rise in Karachi ahead of Eid

Staff Report

KARACHI: Karachi is witnessing a sharp surge in incidents of street crime ahead of Eid ul Adha.

According to official figures, 192 vehicles, 695 motorcycles and 978 mobile phones were either snatched or stolen in different parts of the country’s largest city over the last 15 days.

On showing resistance, nine citizens were murdered and 33 others were wounded.

Despite tall claims of heightened security, 122 people were robbed of cash outside banks and automated teller machines (ATMs).

The growing incidents of street crime have added to the woes of the inflation-hit public. Trend Pk

People capture robber in Karachi

Staff Report

KARACHI: The people have captured one robber while attempting a robbery and injuring one person on a busy avenue of Karachi on Monday.

According to details, one robber was robbing people of mobile phones and cash at a very busy and congested place, Fresco Chowk, near Aram Bagh and shot injured one victim for resisting.

The people present on the scene attacked the robber and captured him with weapon. Angry crowd handed him over to police after beating him for some time.

The police recovered one T.T pistol and a snatched motorcycle from the robber. Trend Pk

Colossal cheating scam unearthed at Hajis KSA residences

Staff Reported

ISLAMABAD: A colossal cheating scam worth billions of rupees in acquiring Haji residences in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been unearthed by National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Religious Affairs, SAMAA reported on Thursday.

The committee revealed that billions have gone into deals to acquire buildings in KSA for the residences of the Pakistani Hajis. The concerned culprits also tried to take the committee on board in the money making scam, but it declined the proposal.

The Religious Affairs Standing Committee members returned from KSA, it’s chairman, Maulana Muhammad Qasim, talked to the journalists in Islamabad on Thursday.

The chairman said that a five member special delegation of committee members went to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. During this visit, a massive corruption scam was exposed to them.

The

Sialkot lynching: accused SHO, Rana Ilyas, escapes to foreign country

Staff Report

SIALKOT: Rana Ilyas, the accused Station House Officer (SHO), who was suspended in the Sialkot lynching case, has managed to escape to a foreign country, SAMAA reported on Thursday.

According to sources, the suspended SHO who is a key accused in the brutal lynching of Hafiz Mughees and Munib, has escaped via illegal routes to Dubai or Iran.

The DPO of Sialkot, Bilal Kamyana, has said that the suspended SHO did not have a passport, and his name was on Exit Control List (ECL); it was not possible for him to legally leave Pakistan.

The additional SP, Nasir Qureshi, has said that the District Police Department of Sialkot has announced Rs. 0.2 million as bounty for those who will help arrest the suspended SHO. SAMAA

Pakistan trio asked to be withdrawn

TAUNTON: Pakistan test captain Salman Butt and his two opening bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif have withdrawn from the tour of Britain while

investigations into alleged corruption continue.

Pakistan High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan told reporters in London the trio had asked the Pakistan Cricket Board to withdraw them from a seven-match one-day series against England because of the “mental torture” they had undergone.

“They said they are extremely disturbed at what has happened,” Hasan said. “They mentioned that they are entirely innocent.”

Hasan said he believed in the players’ innocence and added Pakistan could take legal action to defend them.

British police confiscated the three players’ mobile phones following allegations of corruption in a British newspaper. They were accused of taking bribes to fix incidents in the fourth

Pakistan endure worst day in their test history

LONDON: Pakistan endured the worst day in their turbulent cricket history on Sunday when a corruption scandal erupting overnight was succeeded by their heaviest test defeat.

British police arrested a man on Saturday after a British newspaper reported that pacemen Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif had bowled three deliberate no-balls by pre-arrangement on the opening day of the fourth test against England last Thursday.

The practice is known as spot fixing.

The police said the 35-year-old had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers.

Millions of dollars are bet annually in the Indian sub-continent on individual incidents such as no-balls within international cricket matches which are widely televised there.

Tour manager Yawar Saeed told Sky Sports police had confiscated mobile phones belonging to Amir, Asif and captain

metro pcs

Mobile phones are a wonderful piece of technology. The person who invented it has helped people today. These phones have very revolutionized communication. Who knew that you can move to some other place and still be able to communicate with someone using the same handset? It is a mystery, but it is a great news, there is much appreciated.
These days, mobile phones are more than just ways of communication. They can be used for entertainment and many other purposes. Some of the features that are included in the current mobile phones have Bluetooth technology and infrared (for data transfer), GPRS, EDGE or 3G (for surfing the Internet), media files and many other features.0″ height=”307″ />Bulls conducted a bulk of the trading in options, showing particular interest in Dell Inc. and MetroPCS Communications, as stocks managed to recoup the losses suffered in last week’s market turmoil.

Trading in Texas-based computer maker Dell heated up midway through the session as investors elected to pursue bullish “risk reversals” in long-dated January contracts—buying January $20 calls and then selling January $12.50 puts to offset the cost.
The Limited Edition model certainly reaches for an edgy audience with its two graffiti-style back covers and branding for the designer, Mister Cartoon, and his studio, Sanctioned.

Although many of the features performed well enough in our tests for a phone of this caliber, call quality suffered, which puts a damper on its core function: making and receiving calls. Still, the phone will appeal to those who prefer tunes over games, and MetroPCS’ all-in-one pricing packages will surely also attract its share of users. The VE440 costs $89 for black or cherry colors, and $129 for the Limited Edition variety, which comes with specialized back covers and matching street art wallpaper.Metro PCS Mobile phones are no ordinary phones. They come in built with special features like camera. You may be able to take pictures of important events and wonderful moments with friends. Not all phones will have cameras, but these phones can be uniquely identified.

Apple, Nokia in Court

Apple escalated its legal battle with Nokia on Friday by submitting a request to ban imports of mobile phones from the Finnish manufacturer.

Apple’s request is the second filed to the International Trade Commission. Nokia filed a complaint last month saying virtually every Apple device violated seven patents held by Nokia.

The smartphone patent debacle started in October when Nokia sued Apple for allegedly infringing on ten of Nokia’s technology patents with the iPhone. Apple responded in December by countersuing Nokia, saying it was allegedly infringing on as many as 13 Apple patents.

Nokia spokesperson Mark Durrant responded to Bloomberg about Apple’s latest request via text message saying, “Nokia will study the complaint when it is received and continue to defend itself vigorously. However this does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia’s innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007.”

Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones globally, has been losing market share over the past year as the popularity of the iPhone skyrocketed. courtesy

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Apple, Nokia in Court was first posted on January 18, 2010 at 1:00 am.

Is consumer getting what he wants?

On a global level, consumers are well-aware of their needs and wants. They know what choices are available to them and they can prioritize their purchases intelligently. The presence of transparent system in most developed countries and the strong presence of consumer rights bodies allow consumers to enjoy a large variety of choices, stand up for their rights and even influence the government to take appropriate steps if need be.

However, in third-world countries like Pakistan, consumer awareness is comparatively low. Most of the consumers are swindled of their hard-earned money without realizing it. When they do realize that they have purchased an inferior product, it’s too late to reverse the damage. Several reasons can be identified for low consumer awareness in Pakistan. Few of them are low literacy level, low internet penetration and high level of corruption and crime rate. One of the effective quick fixes for this problem can be that companies take the initiative to act like responsible corporate citizens and educate consumers about the difference between spurious products and authentic products and at the same time highlight the relative advantages and disadvantages of using each type of product.

The current on-going global recession has slowed down consumer spending all over the world including the developing countries. Our economy is worst-hit because of various other factors that have made many products much less affordable for the consumers. Some of these factors include double-digit inflation and increasing import duties on many products.

A prime example of such products is a mobile phone. A few months back government categorized all mobile phones as luxury items and imposed a flat rate of PKR 750 on all mobile phones being imported regardless of their prices. This has made all mobile phones available locally much more expensive especially for the low-tier consumers.

Mobile phone manufacturers have recently shifted their focus towards developing countries where mobile phone penetration is lower than that of developed countries. In many developed nations number of mobile phones is higher than the number of population of that country. Even though, in recent times, Pakistani telecom industry has experienced accelerated growth in mobile phone subscription and mobile phone penetration, there’s still a huge chunk of population particularly in rural areas where mobile phone penetration is low. This is the potential untapped market being targeted by mobile phone manufacturers operating in Pakistan.

While the government’s objective behind higher import duties was to reduce the widening trade deficit, in effect, it has had an overall negative impact on consumers, mobile phone manufacturers and government itself.

The authentic mobile phones that are available with manufacturers’ warranty are now out of the reach of a common man. Consumer need for using a mobile phone is still being fulfilled. However, this gap is being filled by mobile phones available through grey channels and Chinese mobile phones. These mobile phones are available at cheaper rates but they are not reliable and furthermore they are not accompanied by the warranty that comes with original handsets. There’s no guarantee that the mobile handset available from grey channels would contain all the accessories and even if all the accessories are part of the packaging, there’s no guarantee of the authenticity of these accessories. Similar problems are associated with Chinese mobile phones. They can malfunction at any moment resulting in loss of all the important contacts and other data stored in the mobile phone.

Sale of mobile phone manufacturers operating in Pakistan has declined to a great extent. Most of these sales of mobile phone manufacturers are being eaten away by the flourishing grey channels. They are facing a tough time in improving sales locally.

Due to high import taxes, import of mobile phones has declined by almost 70% in the first half of fiscal year 2008-09 compared to the same period of last fiscal year. The direct result is lower tax revenues being earned by the government. Further tax evasion takes place every time mobile handsets are imported via grey channels; this activity has been rising particularly after imposing of higher import duties breeding greater corruption in society.

In the current scenario, consumers who are suffering the most are ones who deserve to get the greatest relief in terms of prices. Mobile phones have become an important means of earning livelihood for wage-workers who use mobile phone services to communicate their product and service rates. As human dependence on mobile phones for communication is increasing, mobile phone is going further away from the category of luxury goods. This holds true specifically for the low-cost mobile phones used by low-tier consumers. These consumers are certainly not getting what they want. Due to increased prices of mobile phones, they are left with no other choice but to buy unreliable handsets through alternative channels. It is the low-tier consumers who are bearing the greatest burden of tax revenue. A flat rate of PKR 750 implies that a mobile handset of PKR 50,000 now costs PKR 50,750 while a handset of PKR 2,500 costs PKR 3,250. This means that a person buying a PKR 3,250 mobile handset is paying 30% taxes while a person buying PKR 50,750 mobile handset is paying only 1.5% of taxes.

In order to improve level of consumer awareness, mobile phone manufacturers can run awareness campaigns to educate consumers about the cons being faced by the consumers when they don’t purchase authentic product. On the other hand, government must rethink whether low-cost mobile phones (priced PKR 5,000 or below) are luxury item or not. By not considering low-cost mobile phones as luxury items, government will benefit consumers, mobile phone manufacturers and the economy on the whole. Taking the suggested measures will not only curb mobile phone smuggling but also lead to higher tax revenues as more mobile phone imports will take place through authorized channels. Then eventually the consumer will get what he really wants.

Written by Danish Hassan

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Is consumer getting what he wants? was first posted on January 31, 2009 at 7:51 pm.