No Help from Warid and Zong for the flood victims

 

 

The entire country is facing worst ever Flood Crisis and a massive displacement of communities all across the country. Countries have started to come forward to help our people in this time of need.

The corporate sector of Pakistan, including big national and multinational companies, is playing its role by donating handsome amounts to help the flood-affected people but there are also some who have either surrendered to compassion fatigue or are indifferent to the plight of the flood affectees. In the telecom sector, CMPak, its parent company China Mobile and Warid Telecom are amongst those who have not done anything significant so far for the people who have been affected by recent floods.

The telecom sector of Pakistan is one of the most lucrative business sectors of Pakistan having 99 million subscribers and has always responded positively to any calamity / disaster that have hit Pakistan in the past, for example the October 2005 earthquake or the Swat IDPs

Telenor has given Rs. 100 Million in terms of donation to Red Crescent Society; Orascom, the parent company of Mobilink, has contributed some Rs. 85 Million whereas the employees of Mobilink have donated Rs. 6 Million and a further 1.6 Million has been collected by them through their sales and other team members. The combined effort of PTCL and its subsidiary Ufone is Rs. 53.5 Million which it has donated to Prime Minister’s relief fund.

I can remember how Pakistani nation had welcomed Warid telecom at the time of launch when people at Warid highlighted that “We are from the brother country”. Similarly, another cellular operation of our friend China, (Zong) has been pushing Pakistanis through its media campaigns that they are the ones who have brought them cheap and reliable means to communication. There first campaign before the commercial launch had this line in all the newspapers, “The largest company of this Universe”.

Both of them are miles away. Neither of them has come forward to help their brother and sisters in Pakistan who are facing most crucial moments of their lives.

It was shocking when the other day, Richard Holbrooke, Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan taunted us when he said, “At the time of need Chinese and Iranian friends of Pakistan are not on the scene, it is US who is helping at the moment”.

China being a close friend of Pakistan has always supported the people of Pakistan in times of need. However, interestingly, CMPak which is considered as the emissary of friendship between Pakistan and China has not done anything of note so far.

The areas that have been badly affected by the floods are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Northern Areas of Pakistan which are part of the main route of Pak-China trade, especially the Karakoram Highway. These are the areas where the Company claims to have strongest infrastructure presence. Unfortunately, so far they have not taken any steps for providing aid or rehabilitation for the people of the area.

ApnaTime contacted CEO of Zong, Mr. Qian Li, in this regard. When asked about if Zong has donated anything so far, he paused for a moment and then said, “We will do something”.

We also contacted Warid and asked the same question but never found any reply.

In the handset area, Samsung is about to donate USD 200,000, LG has handed over a cheque of USD 33,800 to Governor Sindh Dr. Ishratul Ibad. Nokia’s spokesman told that the “Company has already contributed but we do not want to disclose it at this point of time”.

According to Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain, Pakistan needs $15 billion Marshall plan for reconstruction and rehabilitation in flood hit areas. The government of Pakistan, NGOs, international donor agencies and philanthropists are amongst those who are actively participating in providing relief to the flood affected people.