Cyber gaming & Pakistani youth
Cyber gaming: the next frontier for the country's youth
Lahore, Aug 30: Whenever one hears the term 'cyber gaming', one cannot help but
blurt out that "playing games is something that children do". What has
remained unknown to most of Pakistan is that not only does cyber gaming
provide a much needed distraction from the deteriorating law and order
situation and inflation plaguing the country, but it is also a proper
sport in which Pakistan has managed, in a very short period of time, to
make a name for itself on an international level, with several Pakistani
gamers being considered 'household names' in gaming circles around the
world. Gaming cafes have steadily and
subtly popped up across the country, with the main hubs of gaming
fanatics being Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. The trend came to
light at the turn of the millennium. Ten years on, scores of Pakistani
players are invited to the World Cyber Games, the world cup of gaming
fans across the globe. Despite its first impression, the activity has
proven to be a proper sport, with teams basing their games on proper
worked-out strategies and team coordination. Not only has the activity
provided much needed distractions from the troubles of the world around
us, it has been used by organisations and students alike as a method of
building up coordination and instilling in the masses a spirit of
camaraderie. Majid Mahmood, the manager
operations of Neomatrix – one of the leading and pioneer gaming cafes in
Lahore, said that his café had been established in 2002 with the aim of
providing a proper platform to the gamers to show-off their skills at
an international level. "The slow and steady trend of gaming cafes being
established in the provincial capital has led to young gamers getting
an exposure the likes of which they had not experienced earlier. Since
2005, our country has been proudly represented in the World Cyber Games
and the Electronic Sports World Cup. In the five years that we have
partaken in the WCG, the country has progressed rapidly and has gained a
very good repute in 'Warcraft' (a strategy-based game in which one has a
host of armies at their disposal) and FIFA (the leading game for
football fans around the world). In these two games, our players have
been in the world top ten rankings since 2008," Majid said, adding that
qualifiers for every major tournament are held in the respective cities,
after which the qualified gamers travel for the national finals, which
are either held in Karachi or Lahore. "The winner of the national finals
makes his way to whichever country is hosting the WCG and represents
Pakistan," he said, adding that the country had just completed its
national finals last month and the winners would be travelling to the US
in September for this year's WCG. Ahmer
Mubashar, a gaming enthusiast, said, "What started out as fun in 2002
has turned into a very enjoyable obsession. We could not have imagined
at that time that one day we would be getting the opportunity to
showcase our skills in front of a global audience… however, now we
realise that the sky is the limit, anything is possible. I see children
and men alike coming together in a very unique way to find respite from
the ugliness in the world around us. And now that the world has started
to recognise our contributions and our abilities, we know that things
can only get better. God willing, our team will do very well in the
upcoming WCG in the US," he said. Interestingly, like so many
other sports, cyber gaming has seen a growing competitive rivalry emerge
between India and Pakistan. The first two times that the two countries
squared off was in 2009 in the first-person shooter game 'Counter
Strike', with Pakistan winning on both occasions. After that, our
neighbours invited our team over for a friendly tour, which was widely
appreciated with gamers of both countries coming together in the spirit
of sportsmanship. With the WCG to be held in September, our boys
need all the support from the country that they can get. With Pakistan
facing so many challenges and losing its importance in traditional
sports such as hockey, cricket and squash, cyber gaming could be the one
beacon of hope in which our next generation can put our name where it
belongs, on the top of the world. Daily times
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Varsities' employees seek pay raise by 50pc
Peshawar: The employees of all the universities
and other educational institutions at the University Campus Peshawar
unanimously asked the government, Higher Education Commission and Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa governor Monday to give them 50 percent increase in
salaries like employees of other departments. The demand was made at
a meeting of the Joint Action Committee of the universities' employees
held here with president of the Peshawar University Teachers Association
Dr Johar Ali in the chair. The meeting was attended by representatives
of Engineering University Teachers Association, Agricultural University
Teachers Association, Teaching Staff of Association, Islamia College
University, presidents and general secretaries of Class-III and Class-IV
associations, elected members of Syndicate and Senate of the Peshawar
University. The participants of the meeting said that the federal
government had announced 50 percent increase in salaries for all the
public sector departments except universities. They were of the opinion
that the total number of teachers in public sector universities across
the country was about 13,500 and similar would be the number of
non-teaching employees. They said like other government servants, the
salaries of universities' employees should also be increased. The
participants decided that the representatives of teaching and
non-teaching staff would hold a press conference on August 30 to
register their protest.
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School closed after row over appointment
Dir: A government-run school in Jatkul village has
been closed for the last 10 days due to a dispute over recruitment
against a class-IV position but the Education Department failed to
resolve the issue. The local sources said that a class-IV employee
Saeed Muhammad Khan retired from service and his family wanted his son
to be appointed against the vacant post but the executive district
officer of Dir Upper recruited another man. Saeed Mohammad and his
relative Khurshaid told media that their family had given land for the
construction of school and one of its members should be appointed
against the class-IV post. They complained the EDO (education) appointed
a person from another village at the school in violation of the rules. Saeed
Mohammad said the people of the area had locked the school to protest
against the 'illegal' appointment. He said the people wanted action
against the EDO. He also threatened to move the court against the
decision. When contacted, the spokesman for the EDO office, Ghulam
Wahid, said the government had already paid 25 per cent of the price of
the school land to Saeed Mohammad and had recruited him against class-IV
post. He said now the government was not bound to keep appointing
members of the same family against the post. "This policy has been
abolished by the court," he claimed. He insisted the appointment of
class-IV employee at the said school was made as per rules. The news
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