The 30th meeting of the Board of Director of Universal Service Fund (USF) was held today under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf at PM House this afternoon.
During the meeting the minutes of the 29th Board meeting were confirmed.
The meeting was told that USF has made tremendous progress during the last five and a half years by providing basic telephony and data services in more than three thousand and six hundred (3600) muzas.
The meeting was also informed that broadband services have also been provided in two hundred and sixty (260) 2nd and 3rd tiers cities and towns. As far the optic fiber programme, more than 4250 km of optic fiber cable has been laid to connect unserviced tehsils and towns.
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf appreciated the performance of USF and praised the plan of USF to extend connectivity in the remote areas of Baluchistan in order to bring them at par with other developed areas of the country.
The Prime Minister emphasized on the need to use the fund efficiently for developing connectivity in rural areas and benefit of telecom sector.
Dr. Abdul Hafiz Sheikh, Minister for Finance, Dr. Basit Riaz Sheikh, CEO/Advisor Ministry of IT, Dr. Zafar Iqbal Qadir, Secretary IT, Dr. Ismail Shah, Member Telecom, Walid Irshad, CEO PTCL, Fan Yunjun, CEO-CM Pak, Azfar Manzoor, CEO ISPAK and Kaukab Iqbal, Representative of Consumer Association of Pakistan also attended the meting.