Microsoft Pakistan has laid off more than half of its senior staff in Pakistan. Notices have been served to most of employees with no prior warning and without any severance package.
Mr. Shahzad Khan, who recently joined as Microsoft Country Manager from Dell has been removed and assigned to some internal position. It has also been confirmed that due to staff curtailment, the Country Manager Position has also been abolished.
Our resources got the names and positions of main staff who became victims of this cruel decision by Microsoft. The company had laid off Vaqar Madni, Taimoor Mughal, Nauman Majeed, Imran Ahmad, Zarak Khan working on senior positions as Senior Channel Resource Manager, SME Sales Leader, Public Sector Account Manager, Consumer Business Head and Service Manager respectively.
Earlier this year, Microsoft closed its Innovation Center in Karachi and soon going to close its largest innovation center in Arfa Software Technology Park, Lahore effective 1st September that was established with the collaboration of PITB. Program to establish center of excellence has also been abandoned.Microsoft Bizspark program is also going to suffer due to these actions.
These steps seem to lead Microsoft towards ultimate wind up of their business in Pakistan. The Tech Company is definitely not serious about any investment and the projects running in the country.
It is pertinent to mention here that this decision will affect all of the initiatives running under the supervision of Microsoft Pakistan’s Country General Manager. Microsoft Pakistan played an impressive role in previous times by launching many productive projects in the country.
In past, we have witnessed the glorious days when Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Microsoft pooled resources to bring Microsoft’s Imagine Cup into Pakistan.
However, the recent actions of the company are truly disappointing. As Microsoft is expanding its operation and establishing its Datacenter in India but in case of Pakistan story is going in reverse direction. This is unfair to large resource pool of talent and emerging startup echo system in Pakistan.
By cutting out main staff and reducing job descriptions of Microsoft Pakistan demonstrate its lack of trust in growth of technology sector in Pakistan. Microsoft needs to review the decision and should report the reason behind these choices.
