Every day we come across website addresses trailing with “.com.pk”, “.net.pk”, “.org.pk”, “.edu.pk”, “.gov.pk” or simply “.pk”. To land on this site, you also typed “entrepreneurs.pk”. However, majority people in my network don’t have an idea who operates this “PK” thing for us. It is sad to mention that even many IT Professionals and Computer Science students in Pakistan don’t know about PKNIC (Pakistan Network Information Center (Pvt) Ltd.), the registry responsible for the .pk country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) for Pakistan since most of the people acquire domain name via resellers with a hosting plan. Those who know about PKNIC are unaware of the fact that it is owned and run by Mr. Ashar Nisar, A Pakistani – American who graduated from UET Lahore in the 80s.

Ashar, the reclusive owner of PKNIC (the entity which registers all .pk domains) is termed as an unsung hero along with Imran Anwar, the pioneer and founder of internet and email in Pakistan. Those who have been associated with IT Industry since its inception term Ashar, Imran and Alvi brothers as the fathers of Pakistani IT Industry.

The .PK domain was envisaged as being a private sector provider of services to promote Internet in Pakistan. Formed in 1990,  Ashar Nisar and Imran Anwar both co-founded it as both of them were UET students and neighbors. Every effort was made to keep the government and the telephone monopoly out of it. This remains true to this day. However, some differences arose between the duo and ultimately Imran moved out leaving the complete management control to Ashar.  Mr. Ashar, the technical genius later went onto form PKNIC to manage the ccTLD.

The ccTLD is normally owned by government’s regulatory authority or the ministry of IT but the case of Pakistan is totally different. PKNIC operates from USA although important government, educational, and private organizations including PTA are currently using the DotPK domain server. Recently, The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) persuaded this US-based Pakistani company PKNIC to set up an office in Lahore and deploy a mirrored root server in Pakistan which is fully operational now.

Apart from the PKNIC story, some of you may already know that the very first PC computer virus was developed in our very own Lahore, back in 1986. The famous Brain Code used to change the volume label on a floppy disk since there were no hard disks at that time. This invention is generally attributed to the Alvi brothers, Basit and Amjad but the role of their friend Ashar Nisar is often overlooked. I have been told by various sources that Ashar was the original inventor and that this virus was originally displayed during the National Science Exhibition at UET. Alvi Brothers just modified and released it with their name.

I daily come across individuals who talk negatively about this champ and debate that PKNIC’s registration numbers and some management practices are not up to the mark. But considering how he started from nowhere, did right things at the right time, faced pressures from government & non-governmental organizations, and stands out as a role model for our technology students,  Mr. Ashar Nisar is our entrepreneur of the month.

I think it was the start of the second quarter of 2007 when during a meeting at LUMS, somebody told me that there is a guy in town named Ahmad Murad Akhter who is the CEO of a company called SMCo. Technologies and has formed a website called MobileGames.PK. I didn’t pay much attention to it then. September 2007, one of my seniors at FAST-NU while strolling with me at the driveway of NUCES Lahore Campus told me that he has joined Murad’s company as a Software Engineer. The only expression at my face at that point of time was “A Proper Game Development Company in Pakistan?”. By that time, I didn’t know about Shehryar Hydri’s ventures as well. I felt that Murad is just having fun and his adventure would be over in next couple of months as they would not be able to compete with GameDev Giants. I couldn’t have been more wrong. They survived and currently are one of the biggest game development companies in Pakistan.

Murad, who also later turned out to be the cousin of one of my good childhood friends did set an example for those who wanted to pursue game development in Pakistan. He graduated from Stanford University with an MS in Computer Science and worked in Apple & Microsoft before moving to Pakistan.  A good co-founder is a must for a startup company who is at your back, understands your vision and supports you at every wild decision that the chief takes. Murad was complimented by the ever talented and optimist Mannan Amin, who has a Masters in Management Science with a specialization in Innovations, Viral Marketing, and Entrepreneurship from Stanford.  Earlier Mannan was at LUMS where he did his BSc CS and a year of MBA. Both these gentlemen teach as well. Their students are surely the lucky ones to have in their adjunct faculty such passionate leaders and technologists.

Currently working under the name of Tintash, these fellows have grown their company to 20+ employees within just 2 years of its proper operations. Tintash now operates on 2 floors of Shadman House while earlier it was using only one floor. Apart from that, the best part is their collaboration/relationships with established and emerging game development companies around as well as innovative work strategies.

Those of us who have played Fishing Frenzy by downloading it from iPhone App Store should feel proud that such work has been done in Pakistan and that our game development industry has taken first few steps to enter the global market.

It is certainly not easy to group a wonderful team of concept developers, graphics designers & software developers and then tone their skills as per your requirement especially when you are the first entrant. For standing out there in problems, believing in themselves while establishing a new industry, and growing an organization to such a level, Mannan and Murad are our entrepreneurs of the month.

Jamil Goheer and Khurram Mir at APICTA 2008

I clearly remember it was December 2006 when I got to know about a Pvt Ltd. Company working within the CS Department at LUMS. I was like WoW! Why don’t we have such a culture here at FAST-NU.  Later, I got to know that men behind this venture are ex-FASTians who graduated a year before I actually came to FAST Lahore.

After June 2007, we extensively started hearing about this company which called itself the First Quality Assurance Company in Pakistan mainly because by that time Khurram Javed Mir, the CMO of the company was out from LUMS with an MBA degree. He definitely had a plan how to take this company forward. I remember how people used to gossip about this company especially their batch mates. Some liked the idea considering that their companies can now outsource the QA work whereas some were of the view that what a stupid idea they have come up with as every software company has its own QA department. In the opinion of the second lot, they were definitely a failure.

It was May 2008 when one of my friends Arafat asked me to help setup an office and during the whole summer I heard him quoting Khurram Mir’s inspirational and motivational quotes though he never followed them himself .

“You know Rafaeel. Khurram Bhai said you have to work 20 hours a day if you have to get somewhere.”

By that time, Madam Jehan Ara and Sir Zia Imran had already administered an injection of entrepreneurship to me. So the next thing in my mind was if the CMO is so inspirational what their gang leader would be. Thus like an FBI agent, I ran a background check on Jamil A. Goheer who founded this company in 2006 and has played a key role in taking it from a startup to an award winning software QA services enterprise.  One glance at his profile confirmed that he’s definitely “The Boss”.

Year 2008 was a hard work payoff year for Jamil and Khurram. Their company won various awards including P@SHA ICT Award for Best Startup Applications. Also they were declared the “Best Startup in Asia Pacific” at Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2008.

Then suddenly one day, one of their employees told me about the breakup between the three founders of the company. Jamil and Khurram went one way by handing over the company name whereas the third partner on the other side. Everybody was of the opinion that their affair with entrepreneurship is over but my analysis said, “It’s Not”.

My guess was right. Jamil and Khurram jumped back in the arena with a new name Kualitatem and proved that its the people who matter, not brands. With the vision and the will, they have surely come a long way since then and never got a chance to look back. They have top international and local clients like Microsoft, BBDO, NetSol etc. on their list. What more one could ask for?

Jamil and Khurram seem to be in a constant pursuit of innovation and are cooking up interesting ideas soon to be revealed. Most of us are anxious and looking forward to hear more success stories from Kualitatem.

For the last few months, we were thinking to start a section called Entrepreneurs of the Month and today when we finally decided to give it a shot, Jamil and Khurram were definitely on the top of our list considering their hard work and perseverance. We have all our best wishes for them.