KARACHI, Jan 7: Thousands flocked to the Expo Centre in Gulshan-i-Iqbal as a two-day exhibition on information technology, titled “IT — The Future of Pakistan (IT & Education)”, got under way on Monday.

The exhibition is being organized by the Dawn Group of Newspapers.

Organizers claimed that around 100,000 people had turned up at the exhibition where all manner of IT-related stuff was on display on no fewer than 114 stalls in two spacious halls.

In order to enter the first hall one had to walk under what was called galaxy ambience by Shabnum Abdullah of Print Media Consultants, the firm which had designed and managed the event. She explained that the galaxy ambience had been created with the help of ultraviolet light, smoke and music.

She added that the entire show wore the look of a computer software — with hall doors marked as “search engines” and the reception as “home page”.

Ms Abdullah said the exhibition was a sequel to an information technology show held the previous year on Jan 22 and Jan 23. The exhibition had been titled “IT — The Future of Pakistan”.

At least 60 volunteers, mostly students, guided people around the halls where exhibitors — financial institutions, agencies marketing software and hardware, Internet service providers, educational institutions, manufacturers and dealers of hardware, software houses and consultants, e-commerce solution suppliers, communication and networking vendors, telecommunication firms and venture capitalists — put their products on display.

The crowd milling around in the halls comprised mostly students who took a keen interest in information technology courses being offered at lower rates. They also purchased Internet hours being sold at reduced rates.

Tariq Haider, a student of NED University of Engineering and Technology, told Dawn that he had enrolled himself in an IT course so as to equip himself with those information technology courses which were not being taught at his university.

A girl student of the mass communication department in the University of Karachi said she had bought Internet hours from an Internet service provider at a discount.

A large number of people evinced a great deal of interest in the stalls set up by the National Database Registration Authority and the Sindh police. Some students told Dawn that they had made inquiries about the computerized national identity cards being made by Nadra. They had also asked Nadra staff questions about the large database being put together by Nadra.

Mohammad Yameen, a marketing executive at an advertisement company, told Dawn that he had seen a stall of the Sindh police at the last exhibition organized by the Dawn Group of Newspapers on lifestyle.

Mohammad Askari, an engineer, said he was glad that there were not large queues in front of the Expo Centre. He said: “While security is reasonably tight, I am glad that people are not being made to stand in long queues. It looks that the organizers of the exhibition have seen to it that students come to the show easily,” he observed.

The governor of Sindh, Mohammedmian Soomro, also visited the exhibition.