Draft:Saleem-ur-Rehman

• Comment: Draft:DC Pager — Saqib (talk I contribs) 13:14, 10 August 2024 (UTC)

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Saleem-ur-Rehman, Founder of DC Pager Pakistan, a great pioneer in technology in Pakistan, a man with innovative ideas, an industrious worker, a leader with a pleasant personality, a person with power in his voice, a polite personality wearing a gentle smile on his face. He exuded success and why not? He was in his early 40’s and has already achieved a status that a student dreams of, a professional envies and industry appreciates. He was energetic, enthusiastic and curious to learn about new things like a child who wants to test, experiment, and learn new things every second of his life. He wanted to hold every new toy that he saw, and to use every new technology that came out. Saleem-ur Rehman was one of the blessed children of a well-to-do family living in a 5000 yards bungalow in Defence Housing Society, a posh and an elite locality of Karachi. He graduated from Dawood College of Engineering and Technology in 1980. This was the time when Dawood College was producing graduates who were the envy of every aspiring engineering graduate and it was before the college standards slumped when politics engulfed it subsequent to its nationalization. After his graduation he decided to leave for abroad to get a masters degree in engineering. He also acquired valuable experience while working in the research and development department of companies like AT&T The company was formed when Saleem-ur-Rehman came back from England after completing his higher education. He had also acquired experience of working on technologies of companies like AT&T and Bell Labs. He was working in research and development area so he got the opportunity of working on the state-of-the-art devices of that time such as modems. He decided to open his own company in the annexe of his bungalow in PECHS, another posh locality of Karachi. At first he made a small setup and developed initial products such as the 2+10 lines exchange, 3+16 lines exchange and 4+20 lines exchange that met with success as they instantly satisfied a major requirement of the market. He then felt the need to market that product so he talked with his friend Taimur and hired him in the Sales Department. Taimur was a sales executive whose background was in the sales of Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) companies. Initially marketing and sales of industrial products like PBXs was a new endeavor for him. Slowly experience accumulated as the business started growing. As the operations expanded, Saleem felt the need for other staff and a formal structure. The company named Digital Communications (hereto referred as DC) then came into existence. By early 1980’s T&T (Government’s monopoly telecom company) had a very poor performance record. Even later when it had morphed in to PTCL, it could still not satisfy the growing demand for connections. Applicants had to wait for years and decades before they could get connections. Only a recommendation from the high and mighty could earn an applicant a connection. Quality of connections was very poor: All exchanges at that time were electro-mechanical; the calls would often drop and would require several tries before a connection could be established. At that time, PABX facility in private sector organizations was also quite rare. Equipment was too costly, and it would take forever to provide and setup PABX’s. When DC came up with its products, it tapped in to a huge pent up demand. It beat all its rivals as the products were fully electronic and state-of-the-art with good design and adequate performance. The established names, such as Siemens and TIP (Telephone Industries of Pakistan), were left far behind in competition. Digital Communication maintained its monopolistic control of the market till 1990 in the range of products that it offered. Then Siemens and TIP entered with comparable and competitive offerings. But the competition was only for PABX product and not for other DC products or services. PABXs made by competitors were often inferior in design and features and their prices were also high

Saleem-ur-Rehman was shot dead on 2nd March 1992

As the car was turning in front of the Defence telephone exchange, two motorcycles came in front and shot. They missed the driver but hit Saleem. The driver tried to ram the car in to the motorcyclist but failed. They ran away but Saleem had died

References

• Zahra, Quratulain; Irfan Hyder, Syed (2009). "Was it a One-Man Show?". Market Forces. 5 (1): 9–16.  This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.