Pak Software Board loss
By Techgirl

Regular readers of Techgoss are well aware that a large number of our articles are crowd sourced.  People send in tips, story ideas and even articles. Many of our contributors have full times jobs in IT-ITES, and so prefer using a pseudonym. We offer absolute anonymity to our Tipsters, many of whom contact us in person once they begin trusting us.

Also, regular visitors to Techgoss would have read a number of our articles on how Pakistan’s IT-ITES sector is an equal match to India.  Given political stability, there is no reason why they would not give us a run for our outsourcing money. Despite all the challenges, the Pakistan technology companies are growing from strength to strength.

In 1995, Pakistan’s Government set up the Pakistan Software Export Board which has been tasked with growing their IT-ITES sector.  Pakistan offers tax exemptions till 2016 and 100 percent repatriation of profits for IT companies.

The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has 1141 companies registered with it and manages 9 Software Technology Parks.  60 foreign IT and telecom companies have offices in Pakistan.

But now the Pakistan Software Export Board has lost its website because of non payment of dues.  And this is not the first time it has happened.  A Tipster wrote in to Techgoss about a Propakistani article

“
The official website of Pakistan Software Export Board is down for three days now, with a note on it saying that site is being updated and it will be back soon.

However, a source in PSEB who requested not to be named told ProPakistani that PSEB lost its website due to non-payment of its hosting bills. He further told us that PSEB is likely to lose all its data as hosting service provider has terminated the account on account of non-payment of hosting dues.

We have learned that PSEB has shifted its website to a new server for time being, however, the old data is yet to be recovered from old host, which won’t be possible unless PSEB clears its outstanding dues.

Previously PSEB was hosted with Server4Sale. However it never paid for their hosting services either, a Server4Sale representative told Propakistani
“

Awkward!  Now, whenever someone googles the Pakistan Software Export Board to learn about investing in Pakistan,  they will see this embarrassing incident. 

(Tipsters, Big thank you for all your tips and photos. Do you have a story to tell? If you need to speak to us in confidence or write for us, email us at techgoss[at]hotmail. Or use the Anonymous Tip form at the top of our website. Anonymity guaranteed. We pay Rs. 700 – Rs. 1000 for 100 – 200 word snippets. Unfortunately, we cannot use any tips which are not backed up by enough facts)

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com.  Techgirl has been ejected from Twitter for satirizing an Indian Minister.  Her satire blog has links to her Times of India interview detailing her being kicked out of Twitter, and then being invited back.