“Urdu Version for National Rabta Information Portal Services of Pakistan has been launched”

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) believes that lack of local language content is one of the main hurdles behind the proliferation of Broadband Internet services in Pakistan. Therefore, for the facilitation of general public and internet users of Pakistan, Urdu version for National Rabta Information Portal Services of Pakistan (www.pakistan.pk) has been launched today, a single source facilitation web portal developed by PTA, providing information and content repository to information seekers from within and outside the country at one place in Urdu language.
This new Urdu version would contain the same contents of the English version converted into simple Urdu language with similar layout and design. This step has been taken in view of providing online information to those internet users who are generally less-educated in web-surfing or less-familiar with English language. Now, they would also be able to enjoy the same facility and could access the online available information regarding government, industry, tourism, health, media and telecommunication through a simple click.
PTA believes in utilizing Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to move into the era of electronic service delivery (e-Services) by simplifying procedures, and making credible and timely information available to all the citizens at all levels. The electronic access of information in Urdu language will improve the productivity and efficiency of public and private organizations. This would ultimately contribute to economic activities and bring benefits to the country.
The primary objective behind the development of a dedicated Urdu version for ‘National Information Portal’ is to create a single source facilitation web portal that allows users to access any and all information regarding Pakistan that is already available electronically. It has a theme of ‘connecting the un-connected’ Internet links so any user who visits the portal can be able to access information from a single source. The portal would act as an enabling platform for fast access to one source of information and will increase effectiveness of public and private sector. The local information search via this portal would help retrieve information thus saving international bandwidth cost. PTA believes that there is a strong connection between local language editions of website and penetration of Internet inside our society. This also demonstrates PTA’s effort to encourage local content in order to bring Internet nearer to the people.
It may be mentioned that Urdu version of website is developed by using Unicode font’s standard. Unicode standard (UTF-8) comes up with an added advantage that there is no need to install Urdu fonts at the client side.