Residents find web presence on Chakwal's Website

May 08, 2001

District Chakwal joined the select group of districts that have a full-fledged presence on the web, when its website, www.chakwal.sdnpk.org, was launched at the Vocational Training Institute on 8th May 2001. This was part of a daylong workshop on Internet and email training for the people of Chakwal.

Beginning with a brief geographical introduction about Chakwal, the website's cultural section provides insight into the way of life of people living there, their dress; marriage customs; occupation; food and health. Superstitions and beliefs peculiar to the area, and customs and traditions also make for interesting reading. The physical educational infrastructure is strong and lists are available of its many institutions. Details about the health units, agriculture, education, industry, district administration and important contact numbers are also available at this site. Tourists will find a guide to shrines in Chakwal, and historical information and beautiful images about Kallar Kahar, Katas Raj, and Malot Fort intriguing.

The website was designed by the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP), a development sector project managed by IUCN - The World Conservation Union and funded by UNDP.

Resource personnel from SDNP also conducted the workshop on the day of the launch. The following stakeholders attended:

1. Officials from the DC's office
2. Educational Institutions
3. Health department
4. Education department
5. NGO's
6. PTCL
7. WAPDA
8. Excise and Taxation department

Mr. Shahzad Ahmad from SDNP Islamabad briefly described its work and traced the history of the Internet from research oriented experimental use to today's global network of information and knowledge. Mr. Mohammed Ashraf from SDNP then carried out a hands-on training session on the use of email; how the system allows the user to send and receive data through the Internet, and how to open an email account.

SDNP's Pakistan Development Gateway (PDG) at www.sdnpk.org generated a lot of curiosity and interest among the participants, which contains vast and in-depth information about sustainable development issues related to Pakistan. They explored some Urdu websites, Pakistani English and Urdu newspapers; and international sites. They also learned effective techniques about searching popular search engines to download maximum possible information in the minimum amount of time.

Complete ownership was expressed by the stakeholders regarding the website. They said that they hoped to utilize the skills they had learned at the workshop to maintain and update it. The participants hoped that more Urdu content would soon be available on the Web; and were thrilled to know that SDNP intended to develop an Urdu Development Gateway so that Pakistan's national language is popularized worldwide.