July 17, 2009

Transition of ".pk" Domain completed

chairman pta visiting the root mirroring setup

chairman pta visiting the root mirroring setup for .pk

Islamabad : The transition of county code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) of Pakistan â??.pkâ? has been successfully completed marking it as the most significant and noteworthy landmark in the internet history of the county. In this regard, Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen today visited the Lahore office of PKNIC.  PKNIC is the present ccTLD operator for â??.pkâ? domain. The purpose of his visit was to appraise the newly upgraded â??.pkâ? infrastructure, data center and customer services department in Pakistan.

During the visit Chairman PTA noted that the root server mirroring for â??.pkâ? domain in Pakistan was fully operational. PKNIC has successfully implemented the root server mirroring for â??.pkâ? and tested it with all global root servers from A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET to M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. The new authoritative mirror M-2.PKNIC.NET.pk (203.128.7.123) would enable local resolution of â??.pkâ?websites. PKNIC representatives briefed the Chairman regarding mirroring techniques and provided some testing on new Domain Name Service (DNS) resolution mechanism of .pk ccTLD.  Formal inauguration of new PKNIC office shall be organized in August.

It may be mentioned that Chairman PTA had a long association with â??.pkâ? transition project and has been working vigorously for the successful transition of â??.pkâ? domain to Pakistan. There had been numerous attempts since a decade to bring .pk operations to Pakistan; however during his efforts for â??.pkâ? transition, Chairman PTA strongly perused and coordinated the whole process resulting in execution of â??.pkâ? local mirroring.

On this occasion Chairman PTA said that â??.pkâ? domain is a national asset for the country and improvement in its services would boost the local content development; subsequently encouraging enterprises to host their web content under â??.pkâ? and ensuring smooth operations of an important internet resource. A dedicated team at ICT Directorate, PTA under the supervision of Chairman had been working on this significant project for the improvement of local internet industry.

Chairman PTA appreciated the efforts of PKNIC management especially of Mr. Ashar Nisar and Mr. Imran Anwar for this important accomplishment. He also praised the efforts of PTA ICT Directorate towards the project and commended their role during the transition project. PKNIC management highly valued the necessary endorsement of Chairman PTA in this regard.

 

Khurram A.Mehran

Director (PR)