Temporarily unavailable: Bar association’s website closed over dues
‘Closure is part of drive to rationalise expenses’.
LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) website has been closed for two months over nonpayment of dues to the server hosting the website, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Sources in the LHCBA told The Tribune that the new LHCBA secretary was yet to respond to the association’s Information Technology Department’s requests for release of funds for payments to the host server.
LHCBA IT department incharge Nadeem Shahid said the website had been closed for three months. He said the monthly expense for keeping the website running is Rs6,000. Shahid said there was no plan to shut it down permanently. “Restoration of website is not a priority of the association at the moment,” he said.
Several members the Express Tribune talked to complained that the closure of the website was preventing them from accessing important information online. They said they could no longer access contact details of the LHCBA members which were available on the website.
Advocate Saeed Cheema said that the current body did not seem interested in promoting the use of information technology at the bar association. He said the previous body had automated the process of voting for bar association elections.
LHCBA Secretary Ahmed Qayyum agreed that the closure of the website was preventing members from accessing important information online. However, he dismissed the suggestion that the temporary closure was causing a lot of trouble to the members. “We have three pages on Facebook which are being regularly updated with important news and event information,” he said. He said members could use these pages to contact us with their questions as well,” he said. He said these pages included the Lahore High Court Bar Association, the Lahore High Court Bar Association - Ads, and the Lahore High Court Bar Association - Announcements.
Qayyum dismissed the impression that the association was no longer interested in keeping the website operational. However, he said, there was no immediate plan to restore it either. “We are short on funds at the moment. The temporary closure of the website is part of our attempt to rationalise our expenses,” he said.
The website (www.lhcbar.com) had remained closed for about two weeks last year for nonpayment of monthly fees in December as well. The storage capacity of the website had recently been upgraded to 160 gigabytes to ensure that it could accommodate a message from the bar association president, data of all members, information on facilities available at the bar premises like library and dispensary and links to websites of the Lahore High Court, the Punjab Bar Council and the Pakistan Bar Council.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 2nd, 2015.
The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) website has been closed for two months over nonpayment of dues to the server hosting the website, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Sources in the LHCBA told The Tribune that the new LHCBA secretary was yet to respond to the association’s Information Technology Department’s requests for release of funds for payments to the host server.
LHCBA IT department incharge Nadeem Shahid said the website had been closed for three months. He said the monthly expense for keeping the website running is Rs6,000. Shahid said there was no plan to shut it down permanently. “Restoration of website is not a priority of the association at the moment,” he said.
Several members the Express Tribune talked to complained that the closure of the website was preventing them from accessing important information online. They said they could no longer access contact details of the LHCBA members which were available on the website.
Advocate Saeed Cheema said that the current body did not seem interested in promoting the use of information technology at the bar association. He said the previous body had automated the process of voting for bar association elections.
LHCBA Secretary Ahmed Qayyum agreed that the closure of the website was preventing members from accessing important information online. However, he dismissed the suggestion that the temporary closure was causing a lot of trouble to the members. “We have three pages on Facebook which are being regularly updated with important news and event information,” he said. He said members could use these pages to contact us with their questions as well,” he said. He said these pages included the Lahore High Court Bar Association, the Lahore High Court Bar Association - Ads, and the Lahore High Court Bar Association - Announcements.
Qayyum dismissed the impression that the association was no longer interested in keeping the website operational. However, he said, there was no immediate plan to restore it either. “We are short on funds at the moment. The temporary closure of the website is part of our attempt to rationalise our expenses,” he said.
The website (www.lhcbar.com) had remained closed for about two weeks last year for nonpayment of monthly fees in December as well. The storage capacity of the website had recently been upgraded to 160 gigabytes to ensure that it could accommodate a message from the bar association president, data of all members, information on facilities available at the bar premises like library and dispensary and links to websites of the Lahore High Court, the Punjab Bar Council and the Pakistan Bar Council.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 2nd, 2015.