KARACHI, Jan 8: A hundred and fourteen stalls buzzed with fierce activity at the Expo Centre on University Road as an information technology exhibition, titled “IT — The Future of Pakistan (IT & Education)”, entered its second and last day here on Tuesday.

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

Organizers claimed that the turnout had been higher than that of the previous day. They added that more than 100,000 people had shown up. They expressed satisfaction over the fact that this exhibition had been as successful as the one held the previous year in January which had also drawn people in their thousands.

Financial institutions, venture capitalists, agencies marketing software and hardware, telecommunication firms, Internet service providers, communication and networking vendors, educational institutions, e-commerce solutions suppliers, manufacturers and dealers of hardware and software houses and consultants took part in the exhibition.

Imran Abbasi, a student of Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, told Dawn that though he had merely gone window-shopping, he had learnt a lot about the latest computer hardware available. He said he wanted to learn about the latest computer hardware because he was considering upgrading his computer system.

Hameed Khan, a commerce graduate, purchased at least 120 Internet hours from an Internet service provider. When this reporter asked him why he had bought so many Internet hours, he said he was excessively fond of chatting on the Net.

“I have friends all over the world and I want to be in touch with all of them. I spend at least four hours chatting every day. I purchased so many hours at one go because they were available at a discount.”