Elsewhere, the Karachi Electric Company has been unable
to fix one of its main generating stations to ensure it
won't have problems. The company supplies electricity to
Karachi, the industrial and manufacturing heart of Pakistan
and the home to 14 million people. The problem could black
out the entire city, Khawaja said.

Oregonian

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), November 29, 1999

Answers

http://hotnews.oregonlive.com/cgi-free/getstory.cgi?a0494_PM_Y2K- Pakistan&OR&news&oy2k

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Pakistan's airports, hospitals not ready for Y2K

The Associated Press

11/29/99 6:33 AM

By KATHY GANNON

Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Airports, hospitals and a major electrical company in Pakistan are not ready for the Year 2000 computer bug, the man who heads Pakistan's Y2K team said today.

Ijaz Khawaja, the national Y2K coordinator, said none of the airports in the country have fully converted their equipment and computers to guarantee a smooth transition when computer clocks turn from 1999 to 2000.

"Aviation is an area of very grave concern to us," he said.

The Civil Aviation Authority promises the airports will be ready by the end of the first week in December, Khawaja said.

"But that doesn't give much time for testing, and we're still not sure that they will be able to meet that deadline," he said. The airports have missed every deadline so far, beginning with a Sept. 30 deadline when airports worldwide were to be Y2K compliant.

The national carrier, Pakistan International Airlines, may ground all its flights from 6 p.m. Dec. 31 until noon on Jan. 1, Khawaja said.

[snip]

Pakistan's Y2K preparation was already painfully slow during deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif's tenure, Khawaja said. Then, when the army threw out the government and took control on Oct. 12, everything shut down.

Elsewhere, the Karachi Electric Company has been unable to fix one of its main generating stations to ensure it won't have problems. The company supplies electricity to Karachi, the industrial and manufacturing heart of Pakistan and the home to 14 million people. The problem could black out the entire city, Khawaja said.

The contingency plan is to supply Karachi from the national power grid. There is enough surplus electricity available, but Khawaja said the request will have to be made well before Dec. 31.

Much of the equipment in government-run hospitals is not threatened by the millennium bug because it does not contain computer chips. But some is at risk, and "much of that equipment is life-sustaining," Khawaja said.

"We're telling hospitals to make alternate arrangements now if they have equipment about which they are not sure," he said.

)1999 Oregon Live LLC

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-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 29, 1999.

Thanks for the info! I was planning to travel to Pakistan for my triple by- ass on January 1st. I guess I will just stay here in the US and get my healthcare locally. Whew!

-- for real (for@real.com), November 29, 1999.

One important thing to bear in mind...Pakistan and India are both now nuclear countries:

"India and Pakistan - Nuclear rookies under a Y2K cloud"

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001rKr

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), November 29, 1999.