From: azhar@duke.cs.duke.edu (D. Salman [Quintessential] Azhar)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Greeting from Sohail at SAH Inst of Comp Sci.
Date: 3 Aug 92 19:17:51 GMT
Organization: Duke University Computer Science Dept.; Durham, N.C.


I received the following from Sohail enclosed in an email for posting
to SCP.

dsqa

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Here is the for posting to SCP:
-------------------------------

Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem.

Fellow Pakistanis, and gentle readers of SCP. Assalaam-u-aliekum.

The S.A.H Institute of Computer Science, Lahore, has recently
subscribed to UUNET to gain access to the world-wide electronic
network. You probably have seen my postings on SCP while I was
at CSRD, University of Illinois, Urbana. I have moved back to
Pakistan permanently and have taken up a faculty position at SAHICS.
You may be familiar with other commonly used name for ICS in Lahore
and Karachi: BCCI-FAST. FAST is the Foundation for Advancement of
Science and Technology which runs the two institutes. BCCI foundation
used to donate money to FAST (and other organizations). Anyhow, please
refer to us as S.A.H Institute of Computer Science.

I flew back to Lahore in March and joined SAHICS in April. In these few
months I have come to relaize that SAHICS in Lahore and ICS in
Karachi are the premier sites for good, formal academic training in
Computer Science. Our courses are in accordance withe ACM guidelines *
Karachi ICS has an MS program in place; we hope to have ours very
shortly. The BCS program spans 3 years with 2 semesters each year.
The students normally take 5 to 6 courses each semester.

SAHICS will be moving into its newly constructed building located
on a 4-acre plot in Faisal Town. It is on prime real estate. It
is a beautiful two-stories building. It has 16 large classrooms,
couple of large lecture halls, offices for faculty members,
student lounge etc. Later, more buildings will be built on the
rest of the lot.

And now for the real need of the hour: We need qualified people
to join SAHICS as faculty members. I can assure you that Pakistan
has all the right elements to become a prosporous and great
nation; we just need trained people to come back, take these
elements and form the right compounds. Nearly all the resources
are available but most of all, there are many many sincere persons
who are eager to be of assistance. Many of the inconveniences are
not all due to corruption and mismanagement. Quite a few are due
to lack to training and skill. And don't even hope for the day when
U.S or Japan will send their experts to train our people. They, like
many other are in it for the buck. If we don't do it ourselves, nobody
is going to do it for us. Please come back; I can't explain the
pleasure one feels in being with people who of one's own kind.

Many of you frequently visit Pakistan. I would like to have a set up
where you could give a lecture or a seminar at SAHICS on your
work. This need not only be computer science related: any field
which makes use of computational resources. Please contact me
via email, fax, mail or phone. Let me know when you'll be flying
back so that we can arrange a date and time for the lecture. I would
like to see the whole year filled with lecture and seminars; there
is a very audience earger to be present at such occasions. Please
pass this word to others at your Universities or Organizations.

We need to expand our library resources at SAHICS. We have tried to
acquire most of the CS books. The journals, conference proceedings etc.,
however, are quite expensive. We would be grateful if you could donate
to SAHICS journals and conference proceedings. Mail them to us or
bring them along with you next time you come to Pakistan. On the same
lines, please send us departmental reports from your universities.
Not only from the the CS departments but EE, and other engineering
and sciences departments that make use off computational resources.
Send them by surface mail. It is quite cheap.

An now a note about the email link. We have subscribed to UUNET.
We are in the process of registering a domain for SAHICS. It
would most likey be "sahics.pk". Dr. Qasim Shiekh at Cray was
gracious enough to send us a Telebit T2500 modem. We call UUNET
over the phone 2 or 3 times a week. The charge is Rs. 50 per minute.
We pay for email traffic both ways,and thus the following request:

        PLEASE DO NOT SEND US LONG CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES 

because we have to pay for all the mail queued at UUNET. I would like
to hear from the people at PSAI though. A note from the PSA
presidents at various universities would be nice. Until we can
figure out a way to bear the high cost of phone, I would like to
minimize the traffic to and from UUNET to the most essential. 

A question: Does METU in Ankara have UUCP access? If so, would it
be possible for us to dial METU? The telephone rates to Turkey are
very low (~ 10 or 15 ruppees per minute .) 

Someone mentioned that LUMS has a bitnet connection. I'll check on
this but if some has any information regarding this please send
me a brief note.

I'll send more postings later. Again, please get in touch with me
if you are planning on being in Pakistan. And we do need more to
join the faculty here at SAHICS. Please send us your resumes and
when you can be available.

It is great to back in Lahore.

Sohail Aslam
S.A.H Institute of Computer Science        Phone: 92-42-865379
22-Faisal Town                               Fax: 92-42-832134
Lahore 54700, Pakistan                     email: aslam%sahics@uunet.UU.NET
                                                  uunet!sahics!aslam


-- 
"To have loved and lost is better than to have won.... For, the burden
of victory has to be shouldered throughout life, and all losses rest
easy in the insatiable abyss called grave." 
--- D. Salman [Quintessential] Azhar CS Dept Duke U  azhar@cs.duke.edu