P@SHA PULSE Vol 1. Oct 2022 Edition

Note from Chairman

Dear P@SHA Members,

It gives me immense pleasure to be elected as a chairman to serve our member community this year. We are thrilled to continue several past initiatives with new energy and initiate new ones with a fresh perspective. As a CEC, we have resolved to keep close to our member base and keep them informed on activities and happenings within P@SHA regularly.

Our brand committee has taken this initiative to bring to you our monthly ‘P@SHA Pulse’. This newsletter will keep you close to the activities, happenings and progress made by our teams and committees. I will also encourage you all to share noteworthy updates from your organisations that we can cover in our NL. Lastly, we are on a journey to transform this organisation into a forward looking, collaborative, progressive and transparent association and I look at all of you to come forward and contribute. Wishing you all great times ahead!

Chairman P@SHA
Muhammad Zohaib Khan

Latest Update

P@SHA CEC 2022 Joined the Office on 1st Oct 2022

P@SHA went through its yearly elections and elected 5 new board members to the Central Executive Committee (CEC). 5 previously elected members also continued from the previous year.

Newly elected members of the CEC include Mohsin Ali (Inbox Technologies), Shahzad Shahid (TPS), Jamil Goheer (Virtual Force), Mudassir Malik (AppsGenii) and Azam Mughal (SecureBeans). CEC members continuing from 2021 include Bilal Hashmat (CureMD), Zohaib Khan (A2Z Creatorz), Ali Ihsan (Frag Games), Khurram Rahat (Northbay) and Dr. Shoab Khan (CARE).

The CEC unanimously nominated Muhammad Zohaib Khan from A2Z Creatorz as the Chairman of P@SHA.

The oath-taking ceremony for the CEC members took place during the P@SHA Annual General Meeting on September 30.


Newly elected CEC during the oath-taking ceremony

P@SHA CEC 2022 Meets the Secretariat Team

The new CEC held an introductory meeting with the Secretariat team over breakfast at English Tea House, Islamabad. The team discussed their goals. The CEC shared a briefing about the new committees’ plans, and the way they look forward to the upcoming year at P@SHA.

GITEX GLOBAL (10th Nov - 14th Nov, DWTC - Dubai)

This year's GITEX GLOBAL was a great success for Pakistan. A total of 55 companies represented Pakistan in 4 different conclaves. These included 29 companies in the Pakistan Pavilion by PSEB, 10 startups by Ignite, and 16 other companies.

Tech Destination Pakistan sponsored the Connexion Lounge, where people from all over the world gathered and met with IT industry leaders from Pakistan.

Pakistan's participation at GITEX Dubai 2022 was heard loud and clear across the globe. IT companies from Pakistan left a clear message to their global counterparts that we have evolved significantly and are ready to scale business in IT.

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Pakistan had 3 key locations this year, including a Pavilion for established enterprises, a well-constructed Pavilion for young innovative startups by IGNITE, and a Connexion Lounge for matchmaking & networking with booths and meeting rooms.

Digital Tech Summit (25th-26th Oct, Copenhagen - Denmark )

P@SHA, in collaboration with Tech Destination Pakistan and Pakistan Embassy in Denmark, facilitated the participation of IT companies from Pakistan in DTS 2022. The landmark IT event in Denmark saw Pakistan’s Tech participation 2nd year in a row to expand in the Nordic Market. 

His Excellency Mr. Ahmad Farooq, Ambassador of Pakistan to Denmark hosted the Pakistan delegation and invited guests from Danish Tech community creating a network opportunity for the delegation.

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P@SHA Signs MOU with Bahrain Technology Companies Society

P@SHA and the Bahrain Technology Companies Society (BTECH) signed an MOU to promote trade & business collaboration between their members. Valued at USD 4.28 billion in 2021 with 8.1% CAGR, Bahrain's global ICT market is a tremendous opportunity and untapped frontier for P@SHA members and Pakistan's economy.

The MOU was signed by P@SHA Chairman Zohaib Khan and Mr. Rashed Al Snan from BTECH, in the presence of P@SHA CEC Member Jamil Goheer and Mr. Ahmed Alhujairy from BTECH.


Webinar on IT Services Potential of Pakistan for Swedish Market

P@SHA organized a webinar along with the Embassy of Pakistan in Sweden and TDAP, highlighting the potential for the Pakistan IT Industry to win business in Sweden. P@SHA CEC Member Jamil Goheer shared the speaking panel with government officials & business leaders from Pakistan & Sweden. Also presenting at this webinar were Microsoft Sweden Vice GM and Marketing & Operations Lead Thomas Floberg, Mats Bryntse (CEO, Bryntum), Tommy Eriksson (CEO, Seamless Distributions), and Rami Korhonen (CEO, OIVAN OY).

Formation of P@SHA Committees

An official invitation has been shared with all the active members of P@SHA to join the existing and new committees for the year 2022-2023. However committee chair & TOR's will be announced by next week. Committee chairs will be looking after the criteria of shortlisting candidates for each committee.

Members can choose to be part of any of the committees below for the tenure 2022-2023.

Core Committees

  1. Membership & Member Services (Chair: Mudassir Malik)

  2. Government Relations Committee (Chair: M. Zohaib Khan)

  3. Brand and Global Outreach (Chair: M. Jamil Anwar Goheer)

  4. Skills Development & Training (Chair: Ali Ihsan)

  5. Special Technology Zones (Chair: Bilal Hashmat)

Industry Sector/ Sub Sector Committees

  1. E-Commerce (Chair: Khuram Rahat)

  2. Animation, Graphics and Games (Chair: Ali Ihsan)

  3. Cyber Security (Chair: M. Azam Mughal)

  4. Fintech (Chair: Shahzad Shahid)

  5. Web 3.0/Blockchain (Chair: Ali Ihsan)

  6. Cloud (Chair: Mohsin Ali)

  7. ICT (Chair: Mohsin Ali)

Special Initiative Committee

  1. MakeinPakistan/Product Innovation (Chair: M. Jamil Anwar Goheer)

  2. Startup (Chair: Mudassir Malik)

  3. Diversity and Inclusion (Chair: Ali Ihsan)

Register here
Government Meetings

Meeting with Commissioner Karachi

P@SHA Chairman Muhammad Zohaib Khan and new CEC members met with Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon to discuss ways to enhance ease of doing business for the industry.

Ministry of Finance

A meeting was co-chaired by the Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue and Federal Minister for IT & Telecom to discuss proposals by the IT & Telecom advisory committee for growth initiatives, held at the Ministry of Finance.

Prime Minister Office


A follow-up meeting was convened under the leadership of SAPM Shaza Fatima Khawaja with FBR and State Bank. The meeting was attended by Chairman P@SHA Muhammad Zohaib Khan, CEC member Mohsin Ali, and Policy Lead P@SHA Kashoon Leeza. FBR assured to resolve the challenges faced by the industry and assured that the companies won't be exposed to unnecessary audits, enhancing the ease of doing business.

State Bank of Pakistan


The State Bank of Pakistan convened a meeting with the Heads of Commercial Banks to resolve the issues faced by the IT & ITeS industry. State Bank assured the following:

i. Commercial banks will ensure the facilitation of opening FCY accounts for IT/ITES companies throughout their branches across the country.

ii. Retention limit of 35% USD amount in such accounts will be facilitated

iii. Easy / document-less outward remittances out of this retained amount will be allowed without any hassle.

iv. SBP assured it will issue a letter/instructions after resolution of these outstanding issues within 4-5 days.

Ministry of Commerce


An inter-ministerial meeting convened under the Ministry of Commerce under the chairmanship of the Joint Secretary (FT-II) to discuss the draft chapter of the Pak-GCC Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The meeting was attended by the P@SHA Vice Chairman, Khuram Rahat.

Sindh Secretariat | Skills Development Projects


The P@SHA Learning & Development team, as part of the advisory committee, attended the pre-bid meeting for the Sindh chapters of two major Skills Development projects: the Accademia-Bridge Program and the IT Industry-Readiness Bootcamps. The team helped answer questions from potential bidders around the RFPs circulated by the government.

Open House Ceremony NASTP-Karachi

Chairman P@SHA Mr. Zohaib Khan was invited to the Open house ceremony of NASTP in Karachi.

HR Reports Duo Launched

Good things can sometimes come in packages of two! The year's most awaited reports launched simultaneously, providing a complete info kit to understand and compare salary benchmarks & employee benefits. These reports featured data from 14,000+ employees across Pakistan.


P@SHA Salary Benchmarking Report 2022
P@SHA Employee Benefit Analysis Report 2022
P@SHA ICT Awards - 2nd Nov 2022

This year, we broke all records! The P@SHA ICT Awards received a grand total of 937 applications - more than ever before. P@SHA ICT Awards are the sole gateway to APICTA which will be held in Pakistan for the first time in 20 years. We are well on our way to paint APICTA green! 💚

Pakistan's premier technology awards event took place in Lahore on November 2nd. Boasting an exclusive guest list of top tech & business leaders, officials, diplomats, and IT experts, attendees gathered for an evening of networking, roundtable discussions, celebration, and entertainment - and to celebrate with the most innovative IT heroes of Pakistan at the P@SHA ICT Awards 2022.

Track Event

We are thankful to our amazing Outreach Partners and Sponsors for enabling this event.

APICTA 2022 - Happening in Pakistan!

APICTA AWARDS ARE COMING TO PAKISTAN! In April 2022, Pakistan won the bid to host Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2022 in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan. In August 2022, APICTA Executive Council visited Pakistan and finalized it as the next destination.
For the first time in 20+ years, over 200 foreign delegates from 16 member economies including Australia, China, Japan, and Singapore, will visit Islamabad for 5 days of pitching, networking and competing in one of the region's longest-running and most prestigious ICT awards.

In March 2022, we at P@SHA set ourselves a challenge: to put Pakistan's IT & ITeS industry on the map like never before. With your participation, bringing the APICTA Awards to Pakistan will be the first milestone of many more to come. So this year, let's paint APICTA green! 💚

Watch our P@SHA social media for details of APICTA events!


TechLift - IT Industry Readiness Bootcamps

TechLift is a first-of-its-kind, industry-driven initiative being led by a Joint Venture of 16 companies o build capacity for the IT Industry of Pakistan. The program aims to train 4,000 students in 3 cities in 5 top-in-demand technologies and prepare them for immediate industry integration.

After months of framework setting and preparatory activities, the TechLift boot camps are live in three cities: Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.

P@SHA serves as a strategic partner involved in the facilitation and oversight of the program.

Pakistan Tech Destination is the main sponsor of the program.

A Glimpse into TechLift Bootcamps

P@SHA

Daftarkhwan, Street no. 7, Sector I-10/3, Islamabad
Pakistan

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