From: qazilb50@wharton.upenn.edu (Haider Ali Qazilbash)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: The PSAI Report (199O-92)
Date: 5 Oct 92 03:37:15 GMT
Organization: Wharton School of Business


============================================================================= 
                     The PSAI Report (1990-92)
                     
                               by

                        Haider Qazilbash
==============================================================================
         I am grateful to Humera Khan (MIT) and Omar Moonis (Penn) 
         for assistance in the preperation of this document.              
==============================================================================


	 The PSAI was formed in September 1990 at the University of 
 Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA, with the aim of promoting interaction among
 Pakistanis and providing them with an opportunity to work for the betterment 
 of Pakistan.  The following is my report on the organization's activities 
 and how you can take part.  Please remember that the PSAI welcomes ALL 
 Pakistanis, regardless of whether they are students or not.


=============================================================================
                    PSAI COMMITTEES
=============================================================================


PSAI Communication Committee:
----------------------------
Objectives:
 To provide and maintain PSAI 's various electronic mail mailing lists.

Members: 
 Haider Ali Qazilbash (Penn), Humera Khan (MIT), Nageen Himayat (Penn)

Work done:
 The PSAI's first mailing list sanaw@eniac.seas.upenn.edu was
 set up in February 1991 with about 20 users on it by Jaffar
 Rehman (Penn). Its currently successor `saiw' has about 300 users on it and is
 used by the organisation and its chapters to communicate to PSAI members all
 over the world. Initially maintained by Jaffar Rehman, Ali Imtiaz Shah (Royal 
 Institute of Technology, Stockholm) and later Abid Zaidi (McGill U, Canada) 
 took over. A  list for the news project sanae@eniac.seas.upenn.edu was also 
 set up by Jaffar Rahman (Penn) and is being  maintained by Nageen Himayat 
 (Penn).

 The PSAI was provided with several mailing lists by Ahsan Imam (Intel) which
 were used by various PSAI committees.    

 The PSAI Communication Committees will start maintaining an archive of
 select PSAI documents at the ftp site of  dip.eecs.umich.edu in directory
 /pub/psai.  These can be retrieved by annonymous ftp.

 Requests for addition to the PSAI mailing list saiw@athena.mit.edu should
 be sent to Humera Khan (humera@athena.mit.edu). 


PSAI Correspondence Committee:
-----------------------------

Objectives:
 The task before this committee is to conduct PSAI's official correspondence
 and to bring out the PSAI Journal. The committee works with the help of
 its mailing list saix@engin.umich.edu set up by its former Coordinator Jamal 
 Mubarak (U Michigan-Ann Arbor).

Members:
 The PSAI Correspondence Committee consists of Adil Najam (MIT), Ali Ahmad 
 Minai (Virginia), Saad Shafqat (Duke),  Salman Azhar (Duke), Sunia Afzaal 
 (Purdue), and Zartaj Majeed (U Texas-Austin).
 Its former members include Abid Zaidi (McGill), Afshan Alam (U Colorado),
 Iftikhar Uz Zaman (Oxford), Jamal Mubarak (U Michigan-Ann Arbor),
 and Salman Akhtar (MIT).
 

Work done:

i)Project HOPE:
  The committee undertook an effort to inform all medical colleges in Pakistan 
  of a little known free textbook service offered by the Project HOPE 
  foundation. The committee researched the exact natureof this service, 
  obtained postal addresses of the Principals and Librarians of all Medical
  Colleges in Pakistan and wrote them letters providing all information they 
  would need to use Project HOPE's facility.

How you can help:
  Although some medical colleges have initiated the process of ordering 
  needed texts, most colleges seem to have chosen to ignore this 
  opportunity.  If you are in a position to contact (or get someone else
  to contact) ANY medical college (except Agha Khan Medical College Karachi, 
  Khyber Medical College Peshawar, and Sind Medical College, which are already 
  using HOPE's facilities), please send e-mail to PSAI's Correspondence 
  Committee at saix@engin.umich.edu

ii)PSAI Journal:
  The committee is also involved in efforts to take out a  PSAI Journal, a
  magazine containing articles from Pakistani students from all over the world.

How you can help:
 If you have any interest in any aspect of the development of a magazine
 (e.g. encouraging world-wide PSAI members to contribute articles, 
 contacting organizations/individuals to donate funds, seeking 
 advertisements, publication, distribution, coordination etc) please send 
 e-mail to the committee at saix@engin.umich.edu  This is a good opportunity 
 to work with several like-minded Pakistanis!


PSAI Finance Committee:
______________________

Objectives:
 To raise money for PSAI's various projects.

Coordinator:
 Monis Ur-rahmaan (Intel/U Wisconsin-Madison)
 Its former coordiantors were Arnaz Shaikh (Rutgers U- New Brunswick) and 
 Afzana Anwar (MIT).

Members:
 Adnan H Lawai (MIT) and Khurram Khan Afridi (MIT).
  
Work done:
 An organization of our nature needs to have funds in order to do anything 
 tangible.  The experience of the two PSAI Finance Committee Coordinators 
 has shown that this committee has to come up with something innovative in 
 order to raise funds.  A PSAI conference/concert of several chapters was
 suggested by Arslan Khan (MIT). This could not materialize last year
 despite the efforts of many.
 The lesson to be learnt: an event of this nature has to be planned well!

How you may be able to help:
 If you would like to work on collecting funds for the PSAI or in 
 organizing a Concert/Conference, please write to Monis Ur-Rahmaan
 (ur-rahma@cae.wisc.edu)


PSAI Pakistan Electronic Mail (PEM) Committee:
---------------------------------------------

Objectives:
 To help connect academic institutions and organizations in Pakistan
 by e-mail.

Coordinator:
 Jaffar Rahman (Penn)

Work done (and a little bit about its past):
 Dr Atta Ur Rehman of the HEJ Reasearch Insitute of Chemistry, University
 of Karachi sent a request to the PSAI for donation of a modem needed
 to start e-mail at his institution.  This request was forwarded by
 Hasan Rizvi (European Organizaton for Nuclear Research, CERN, Switzerland)
 and was put by me on various PSAI mailing lists and the soc.culture.pakistan
 newsgroup.  Also Faisal Rashid (Penn), Haider Ali Qazilbash (Penn),
 Jaffar Rehman (Penn), Ahmad Safi (RPI), Salman Akhtar and Omar
 Aquib Hasan (MIT) undertook active fund-raising campaigns at their
 chapters.  

 The response from Pakistanis was enthusiastic.  Within a few days, PSAI had 
 collected the money needed to buy the Trailblazer modem.  A member of the 
 PSAI, Qasim Hussain Shah (Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan) pledged
 US $1,500 for the modem to cover Karachi custom costs. This amount was not 
 needed and so was not accepted by the Coordinator for the HEJ Drive Jaffar 
 Rehman.  Azmat Khan (DEC) and an anonymous contributor sent in checks of $100
 each.  Jaffar Rehman (Penn) decided to return $80 to both these contributors
 since PSAI ended with a surplus of $160.  Azmat Khan (DEC) wanted his $80.00 
 to be donated to Edhi Foundation in Karachi. The annonymous contributor 
 donated $80.00 to the PSAI.  

 Salman Akhtar (MIT) opened PSAI's first bank account at MIT for  
 maintaining all donations and transactions.  Jaffar Rahman (Penn) and 
 Salman Akhtar (MIT) undertook an extensive market research to procure the
 right modem.  Later Jaffar Rehman (Penn) coordinated the various aspects 
 involved with the project.  Jamal Mubarak (U Michigan-Ann Arbor) prepared 
 the formal letter on the PSAI letterhead to accompany the modem to 
 Karachi.  I called up the PIA GM in New York and the PIA Cargo Manager at 
 JFK, New York.  They promised free shipment of the modem from JFK to 
 Karachi.  Pakistan's Ambassador to Washington, DC Najam Uddin Sheikh 
 promised me that the modem would not be charged any custom duty.
 Jaffar Rehman (Penn) kept HEJ Research Institute in Karachi informed
 about the progress and flight information on telephone.  

 On Monday January 20, 1992  08:27:13 EST, PSAI received its first 
 e-mail message from Pakistan...!
 The transcript follows: 

________________________________________________________________________
 
>From hejfirst!iqbal@uunet.UU.NET Mon Jan 20 08:27:13 1992
Posted-Date: Fri, 16 Aug 91 23:37:17 GMT
Received-Date: Mon, 20 Jan 92 08:27:07 EST
Received: from uunet.uu.net (via LOCALHOST.UU.NET) by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP 
	(5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA12311; Mon, 20 Jan 92 08:27:06 -0500
Received: from hejfirst.UUCP by uunet.uu.net with UUCP/RMAIL
	(queueing-rmail) id 082632.16032; Mon, 20 Jan 1992 08:26:32 EST
Received: by hejfirst (5.61-AIX-1.2/1.0)
	id AA100363 (for psana@eniac.seas.upenn.edu, from iqbal/hejfirst!iqbal); Fri, 16 Aug 91 23:37:17 GMT
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 91 23:37:17 GMT
From: hejfirst!iqbal@uunet.UU.NET
Message-Id: <9108162337.AA100363@hejfirst>
To: irfan@pluto.dss.com, psana@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
Subject: UUCP connection to Pakistan
Cc: iqbal%hejfirst@uunet.UU.NET, zas%hejfirst@uunet.UU.NET
Status: R


To: President and all members of PSANA
This is our first message to PSANA from the first UUCP site in Pakistan.
We appreciate the efforts of PSANA in materializing this connection.

Currently, we are in a trial phase. During this period, we plan to
transfer mail three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday (10 a.m.
Pakistan time, each day).

Sincerely your,
Dr. Iqbal Choudhary
HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry

________________________________________________________________________

How you may be able to help:
-The Pakistan Electronic Mail (PEM) Committee is looking for new 
 members.  If you would like to work on this project, please write
 to S M Rizwan Azeem (azeem@vax.oxford.ac.uk)
-You can also help by forwarding any information pertaining to E Mail usage
 in Pakistan to S M Rizwan (azeem@vax.oxford.ac.uk).


Public Relations Committee:
--------------------------
Objective:
 To promote the PSAI organization, and to answer questions from
 potential members.

Members:
 Haider Ali Qazilbash (Penn),  Khalid Sherdil (Washington U-St Louis),
 and Irfan Ahmad (UIUC).
 Its former members include Arif Irfanullah (Dartmouth), Khurram Khan
 Afridi (MIT), Omar Rasheed Quraishi (Columbia) and Rizwan Azeem (Oxford).

Work done (and some more background):
 The PSAI was formed in September 1990 in my room in the first 
 session of Penn Pakistan Society's executive committee.  
 Later that month, I presented the idea of the PSAI
 to the General Body.  Elections for the exective committee members at the
 first chapter, ( U Penn )  were held on October 5, 1990 at the 
 Wharton School.

 Between October 1990 and mid-March 1991, a total of 15 chapters joined PSAI,
 starting with Drexel Univerity after Penn, the college just next to Penn. The
 procedure involved calling up the local PSA President
 and where none existed (as in most cases) finding someone at
 the college who could call a meeting of Pakistanis and form a chapter.
 To this end, meetings were called at Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, 
 Temple etc. and chapters formed.  In March 15, 1991 Arif Irfanullah
 (Dartmouth) and I announced PSAI's formation on soc.culture.pakistan.
 In about a month's time PSAI increased in number from 15 to 30 chapters.
 Today it stands at 56 chapters in 12 counteries world-wide:  

 Boston U, Brown, Caltech, Case Western Reserve, U Cincinnati, Clemson U,
 Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Drexel, Duke, Harvard, Haverford, UCLA,
 U Illinois-Urbana Champaign, U Kent United Kingdom, Lawrence, LUMS Lahore,
 MIT, U Massachusetts-Lowell, Massey U Palmerston North New Zealand,
 U Melbourne Australia, Memphis State, U Michigan-Ann Arbor, METU Ankara
 Turkey, New Jersy Institute of Technology (NJIT), Norwegian Institute of 
 Technology University of Trondheim Norway, Oxford U United Kingdom, Penn,
 U Petroleum and Minerals (UPM) Saudi Arabia, Princeton, Queen's University,
 Canada, RPI, U Rhode Island, Rhodes U Grahamstown South Africa, Royal 
 Institute of Technoloy Stockholm Sweden, Rutgers U-New Brunswick, U Southern 
 California (USC), Saint Louis, Stanford, Technical U of Nova Scotia (TUNS)
 Canada, Temple, Texas A&M University, Tufts University, U Texas-Arlington,
 U Texas-Austin, U Texas-El Paso, U Toronto Canada, Toyohashi University of 
 Technology Japan, Villanova, U Virginia, Washington U-St Louis, University 
 of Wisconsin-Madison, U Wisconsin-Riverfalls, Widener and Yale. 

How you may be able to help:
---------------------------
 If you would like to promote PSAI so that this forum is available
 to even more Pakistanis, so that they too have a chance to
 do constructive work with like-minded people, please send e-mail to 
 me (qazilb50@wharton.upenn.edu)



PSAI Travel Database Committee:
------------------------------

Objective:
To prepare a database of Travel Agents.

Coordinator:
 Asim Mughal (Caltech).

Members:
 Abdulla Imran Hussain (Lawrence), Asim Mughal (Caltech), Nauman K
 Mysorewala (Arizona). 

Work done:
 This committee has compiled a database of travel agents.  This can
 be requested by sending an e-mail to Asim Mughal at mughal@iago.caltech.edu

How you can help:
 By sending information such as the name of your travel agent, his 
 address and/or phone number, the route, rates etc to Asim Mughal 
 (mughal@iago.caltech.edu).  Please note that the database maintains the 
 anonymity of contributors.  The committee hopes that this will encourage
 more contributions!


=============================================================================
                           PSAI PROJECTS      
=============================================================================


PSAI Project E Mail Directory:
_____________________________

Objective:
 To prepare an e-mail directory of all Pakistanis.

Coordinator:
 Bilal A Bhutta (U Mass-Lowell).

Members:
 Bilal A Bhutta (U Mass-Lowell), Shazia Mushtaq (Univesity of Oslo, Norway)
 Its former members include  Haider Ali Qazilbash (Penn), Monis
 Ur-rahmaan (U Wisconsin-Madison), Saaba Butt (Queen's U, Canada),
 and Syed Jawwad Hussain (RPI). 

Work Done:
 To date, this committee has taken out several editions of its PSAI 
 E Mail Directory. 
  
 To receive a copy of the latest edition of the E Mail Directory,
 please write to Bilal A Bhutta (U Mass-Lowell) at 
 bhuttam@willow.ulowell.edu

How you can help:
-The PSAI E Mail Directory is a service to all Pakistanis. Its use 
 depends upon the number of E Mail addresses it carries.  You can 
 assist this committee by compiling a list of E Mail addresses at 
 your college (or organization or just your Pakistani friends) and 
 e-mail it to the committee at its: psai@athena.mit.edu



PSAI Project Pakistan News:
__________________________

Objective:
 Project Pakistan News is an attempt to provide articles of interest 
 on Pakistan from various international news sources.  


Coordinator:
Zia Zafir (U Nevada-Reno)

Work done:
 Postings on the project's electronic mail mailing list are on a weekly 
 basis during the academic year.  When not providing current news,
 this project posts articles of general interest for its 450+ readers.
 Requests for addition to the Project Pakistan News's electronic mail 
 mailing list should be sent to Nageen Himayat at nageen@pender.ee.upenn.edu
 

How you can help:
 If you are have access to international newspapers or magazines 
 (New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Economist, Far Eastern Review
 etc) that sometimes give coverage on Pakistan, you can have current
 news on Pakistan posted on the project by e-mailing it to
 the Coordinator Zia Zafir (zafir@unssun.nevada.edu).  Also, if you
 would like to work on this project on a regular basis, please
 write to Zia Zafir.  Please note that the project aims at quality
 coverage from well-known sources, not from *any* source.



PSAI Project Scholarship Database
----------------------------------
Objective:
 To make a database of undergraduate and graduate scholarships
 available to Pakistanis students worldwide.

Coordinator:
 S M Rizwan Azeem (Oxford)

Members:
 Haider Ali Qazilbash (Penn), Kamran Ozair (U Wisconsin-Madison), 
 S M Rizwan Azeem (Oxford) and Zuhair Khan (MIT).  
 Its former members include Ahmad Safi (RPI) and Naveed Alam (USC).

Work Done:
 S M Rizwan Azeem has prepared a database of scholarships for graduate 
 study in the United Kingdom.  A copy can be obtained by e-mailing a 
 request to him at azeem@vax.oxford.ac.uk

How you can help:

-If you know of any undergraduate or graduate scholarships available to
 Pakistani students, please write to S M Rizwan Azeem (azeem@vax.oxford.ac.uk)
-This committee needs more volunteers.  One of the long-term goals of this
 project is make information regarding scholarships avaliable not just 
 over e-mail but directly to high schools, colleges and universities in 
 Pakistan. There are thus different aspects of this project: collecting
 relevant information, raising funds, coordination etc.  If you are
 interested, please write to S M Rizwan Azeem (azeem@vax.oxford.ac.uk)



PSAI Project Students Helping Students (SHS), Karachi:
-----------------------------------------------------
Objective:
 To provide basic education at the grass-roots level in Pakistan.

Coordinator:
 Arif Irfanullah (Dartmouth).

Work Done:
 This project, undertaken by Arif Irfanuallah (Dartmouth) and
 his associates in Karachi was successful in imparting some 
 degree of education to a few of our compatriots.  

How you may be able to help:
If you would like to work on this project, please write to Arif
Irfanullah (airfanul@us.oracle.com)



PSAI Project Telephone Directory:
________________________________

Objective:
 To prepare a telephone directory of PSAI members, graduates of
 PSAI chapters, and other Pakistanis.

Coordinator:
 Bilal A Bhutta (U Mass-Lowell).

Members:
 Bilal A Bhutta (U Mass-Lowell), Shazia Mushtaq (Univesity of Oslo, Norway).
 Its former members include  Haider Ali Qazilbash (Penn), Monis
 Ur-rahmaan (U Wisconsin-Madison), Saaba Butt (Queen's U, Canada),
 and Syed Jawwad Hussain (RPI). 

Work Done:
 To date, this committee has taken out several editions of its PSAI 
 Telephone Directory. 

 To receive a copy of the latest edition of the Telephone Directory,
 please write to Bilal A Bhutta (U Mass-Lowell) at
 bhuttam@willow.ulowell.edu 

How you can help:
-The PSAI Telephone Directory is a service to all PSAI members and other 
 Pakistanis.  Its effectiveness relies upon the number of telephone numbers 
 it contains.  You can assist this committee by compiling a list of telephone
 numbers at your college (or graduates of your college) and e-mail it 
 to the committee at: psai@athena.mit.edu

===========================================================================
 SPECIAL THANKS GOES TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE FOR THEIR EXEMPLARY EFFORTS
===========================================================================

Acting Presidents:
 Adil Najam (MIT), Arif Irfanullah (Dartmouth), Jaffar Rahman (Penn)

Communication Committee:
 Arsalan Khan (MIT) for saiw@athena.mit.edu
 Arsalan Khan and Zuhair Khan (MIT) for psai@athena.mit.edu
 Asim Mughal (Caltech) for saie@ugcs.caltech.edu and psai@ugcs.caltech.edu
 Jamal Mubarak (U Michigan-Ann Arbor) for saix@engin.umich.edu
 
Finance Committee:
 PSAI is thankful for all the effort that went in by the following members 
 even if the project could not materialize: Maryam Bashir (Tufts), Umme Imam 
 (Harvard), Arnaz Shaikh (Rutgers U-New Bruswick), Monis ur-rahman (U Wisconin
 -Madison), Ghazala Kazimi (Associate Producer for Larry King, CNN), Salman 
 Azhar (Duke), Haroon W Chaudhry (Columbia), Farrukh Zafar (Yale) and,
 Irfan Ahmad (irfan@aggie.age.uiuc.edu) for his earlier proposal.  


Project E-Mail Directory and Project Telephone Directory:
 The committee is grateful to Arif Irfanullah (Dartmouth), Aman Zafar 
 (U Kent, UK), Altaf Qadir (Massey U, New Zealand), Muhammad Khurram 
 (U Melbourne, Australia), Ghazanfar Ali Khan (U Michigan-Ann Arbor), 
 Muhammad Imran Mushtaq (Norwegian Institute of Technology, Norway), 
 Mohammad Mujahid and S M Rizwan Azeem (Oxford), Maryam Bashir (Tufts),
 Khalid Sherdil (Washington U-St Louis), Bilal A Bhutta (U Mass-Lowell), 
 Haider Ali Qazilbash (Penn), Monis Ur-rahmaan (U Wisconsin-Madison), 
 Saaba Butt (Queen's U, Canada), and Syed Jawwad Hussain (RPI) for providing 
 comprehensive lists of email addresses and telephone numbers of Pakistani 
 students at their chapters. The committee is also grateful to Arslan Khan 
 and Zuhair Khan (MIT) for providing it a mailing list to conduct its 
 operations.

Project Pakistan News:
 The project is grateful to Zartaj Majeed (U Texas-Ausin) for
 sending his excellent translations of "Shahabnama", Nageen Himayat (Penn) 
 for maintaining the Project Pakistan News's mailing list and Asim Mughal 
 (Caltech) for providing the mailing list.



========================================================================== 
 REMEMBER: The progress of PSAI is dependent on the number of people who show 
 an active interest in its proceedings. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join;
 if not to actually help out in some way, at least to be made  aware of the 
 intentions and  efforts of fellow-countrymen.  The more of you out there
 supporting and helping the constructive objectives of PSAI, the
 better it will be for Pakistan in the long run.  
 
 With regards,

 Haider Qazilbash

 qazilb50@wharton.upenn.edu

Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan