Rashid Saeed » Critical Issues

Feedback on NTS Commonwealth Scholarship Test 2009

Rashid — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:20:56 +0000

I’ve just got this comment from a reader, related to NTS Commonwealth scholarship test 2009, to be held on October 5, 2009. So, thought to publish it separately, here is comment by Mr. Omer Bin Sohail:

It’s very ridiculous, that there is no worth of genius and loyal people in Pakistan. I have got 85.68% marks in BSc Chemical Engineering and I have applied for HEC South Korea Scholarship 7th batch, approximate cost for applying for scholarship was:
400 for verification of original Certificate by HEC per result card + provisional certificate (400×5)= 2000
200 for single photocopy and that I have submitted(200×5)=1000
HEC scholarship application applying fee through HBL online (300+350(HBL online fee)=650
through total is Rs. 3650
AFTER taking all other pains I successfully submitted my application well ahead of time, I still got no response, not even the intimation of rejection.
This all felt very much like that we now are living in frustrating situation but you can say me I am mad because I am, now, once again going to take common wealth scholarship test on 4th October 2009.
Let’s see what happens this time around.

Original comment can be seen here

PS: The comment is a personal view of Mr. Omer Bin Sohail and in no way presents my personal opinion as I have no experience of NTS Commonwealth Scholarship Test 2009.

KFC Pakistan: Poor Quality of Service

Rashid — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:17:09 +0000

KFC Pakistan is one of Pakistan’s largest fast food chains with its Zinger Burger being the favorite among the Pakistanis. KFC Pakistan is destination of food loving masses and the management of KFC Pakistan seems to have taken it lightly by offering the quality and service that is way below the standard. Have a look at following serving from KFC:

Absence of glass covers can easily be noticed. And it’s not the first time, sometimes they’ll serve you Fries in a plate, you’ll get burger wrapped in a piece of paper and even more. Even while ordering for it, I saw a person complaining about the quality of KFC Rice as they looked like baked some 2 days back. Add to this the “Next counter please” messages at each but one counter on the outlet coupled with delay in orders and the scenario gets even worse.

The purpose of posting it here is just to remind the KFC management to take care of quality of service and make sure you have proper equipment to serve the orders. Or you should please STOP coming up with “new products” if you don’t have the capacity and resources to offer those.

Note: This is based upon repeated poor quality of service at KFC Y-Block, DHA Lahore.

NTS Commonwealth Scholarship Result 2009

Rashid — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:06:06 +0000

There have been repeated queries about result of NTS Commonwealth Scholarship Program test beside the “clear” notice by NTS saying that they’ll only be responsible for holding the test, which they painfully did, somehow . As per the information, there will be NO result announcement for the test as there’s no document related to result of the test, neither on NTS website nor on that of Ministry of Education. However “successful candidates” are supposed be contacted by concerned authorities based on their academic record and performance in the test.

I wish the process was transparent enough which unfortunately is NOT. At least there should have been a press release indicating the successful jewels but rather a personal contact intimiating success in “wealthy” commonwealth scholarship was preferred. Ministry of Education website has nothing related to NTS Scholarship but an old link from 2005 Scholarship program, it was when they had not passed the responsibility over to NTS. Here’s the link:

http://www.moe.gov.pk/CommonwlSCh2.htm

So all of you guys who had appeared in the test and are awaiting result, give up the vigil and be at peace.

PS: If a successful candidate gets chance to read this, we’d love to get some tips Cheers!

Code-shedding

Rashid — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:15:18 +0000

The ongoing electricity crisis in Pakistan is hurting all kind of businesses; most of all, and quite understandably, the IT industry. Recent power blackouts coupled with periodic network failures that country has been experiencing over past few years have left IT workforce starving for projects. And now the issue is getting global with leading service providers like rent-a-coder.com raising voice, and rightly so, to let their clients know about the issues governing the unfortunate republic of Pakistan.

Critical situations development blog at rent-a-coder published a message saying:

Most parts of Pakistan are experiencing severe electricity rationing, and electricity is unavailable more often than not.

If you are a buyer working with a Pakistini, please contact them to initiate a dialog on whether and how the two of you wish to continue.

If you are a Pakistani coder

If you started your project before today (10/24/08 8:00:00 AM EST) and are forced to cancel your project, let Rent a Coder know. Funds will be returned to the buyer and no poor rating will be placed on your record.

If you start it after today, make sure to let the buyer know about the electricity situation so that their expectations are in synch with yours.

Such a warning concerning a specific community was bound to raise biasness blames and so it did. Surprisingly though, majority of comments condemned the Rent-a-coder for publishing such news and insisted that the Pakistan community on rent-a-coder was hardworking enough to meet the deadlines. Come on guys! No-one is questioning your skills or efforts you put in. They’re just letting people know about a critical issue and are very right in doing so. You should raise the voice but not against the people indicating the problems, but against the problems. If you’re concerned enough, why don’t you raise your voice to stop electricity load-shedding and put an end to stone-age era in the country?

Before you condemn rent-a-coder, put yourself in their shoes and … think again!

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