IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Govts worldwide have opted to incorporate e-governance slowly to minimise the threat this poses to cyber-security

President Arif Alvi has asked all stakeholders to complete the digitisation of parliamentary operations by January 2023. This came at a meeting of the President’s Initiative for Cyber Efficient Parliament (PICEP) earlier this week. The process was undertaken in November last year, and was initially supposed to be completed by June 2021. The president must be credited for the initiative, which will hopefully be followed through to completion. The project will allow the state to expand into e-governance and achieve greater transparency and accessibility, as has been the aim by governments worldwide.

The digitization of 25 mouzas in the ICT has been completed, Punjab Land and Revenue Authority (PLRA) officers informed a meeting chaired by the CDA chairman on Wednesday. The mouzas will be made available online by the end of this month for public convenience.

The meeting was held to review the Digitization of ICT records and CDA’s (Capital Development Authority) Property Management System. Furthermore, two service centers are being established in Bhara Kahu and Tarlai for this purpose.

The workshop on “Advanced Upper GI Laparoscopic Surgery” was broadcast live on Saturday from Holy Family Hospital through videoconferencing facilities provided by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Doctors, consultants, trainee students from various medical colleges and hospitals attended the workshop. This is the first time in the history of the country an interactive surgery has been relayed over a high speed network across the country.

The major aim of the program, as its head Dr Zahid Faheem explains, is to “provide reliable healthcare advice at a distance using the latest in information communication technology.” It is clear that the investment done by Aman Foundation in this particular wing has also focused on this goal. Rows of glistening computer screens staffed by employees who have been imparted six-week training on healthcare issues shows how serious the organisation is towards achieving their goal.

The ministries of Human Resource Development, Professional and Technical Training and National Harmony constituted on July 29 have no official websites despite more than seven weeks passing since their creation. The names of these three ministries (divisions) have also not been enlisted in the list of ministries/division on government of Pakistan’s official website (www.pakistan.gov.pk) which carries names of 29 ministries.

A country’s Policy formulation is not an easy task as it needs an entire sector to work hard and come up with something that can uplift a country’s overall performance. After formulation of a policy, the next important thing is its implementation without which, even a well-devised policy will simply lose its worth. Focusing primarily on the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) sector, we must accept that due to the emerging technological advancements, IT has become an integral part for the progress of all sectors and industries be it health, education, governance etc. Therefore, it requires even greater attention on policy implementation. Draft National IT Policy 2016: Will IT Deliver?

The first phase of the Safe Cities Project was completed in January 2018

The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) has launched its pilot report on the Punjab Safe Cities Project highlighting the progress of the project from a human rights perspective.

The report, under the title Punjab Government’s Safe Cities Project – Safer City or Over Policing? aims to generate a conversation regarding the use of technologies in urban policing both locally and regionally.

Due to the delay in the issuance of the card, many citizens had resubmitted their applications using the option of urgent delivery. They learnt that duplicate cards have been issued in their name when they applied for opening a bank account or for a passport.

Citizens repeatedly applied for cards after being frustrated by NADRA’s slow process and poor delivery system, said a NADRA official on condition of anonymity.

Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan Hafiz Hafiz-ur-Rehman Sunday said that the Chief Minister's e-employment project has been started to provide employment opportunities to the youth.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the Women Development Directorate and the Chief Minister's Employment Scheme, Gilgit-Baltistan, he said, more than 70 years of development have taken place in the last four years, adding, providing e-jobs is a challenge for the government, even in developed countries, it is not possible to provide government employment to everyone. Beware of people who make false promises to give government jobs to everyone in elections, he informed.

Why are Malaysians better off than Pakistanis? Why is Singapore ahead of Pakistan? Amazingly, there are only two differences: state institutions in Malaysia and Singapore work; and Malaysia and Singapore have successfully brought down the incidence of corruption. We have been left behind because our institutions don’t work and the incidence of corruption is way too high.

Here’s something I wrote in an article titled ‘Without the US’ published in these pages on January 14: “We are not beggars; we have been conscripted into begging. We are not poor, wealth has been sucked out of us. We are a fertile nation – both land and minds. We are the sixth largest country in the world – and the youngest – with 63 percent of the total population under the age of 25. What this means is that a very large segment of our population has the potential to take Pakistan towards financial independence and prosperity”. Welcome to the use of technology to transform ‘governance’. ‘Good governance’ in the simplest of terms is a “form of governance which serves the citizens”. Welcome to the use of technology to serve citizens. Welcome to the Pakistan Citizens’ Portal.

She was addressing a workshop organized by MoIT with a slogan - e-Government for smart Governance here.

This was stated by Anusha Rehman State Minister for Ministry of Information Technology, while addressing "E-Government Workshop-2014" with the slogan "e-Government for smart Governance" organised by the IT Ministry in collaboration with ITU and NIPA, Korea here on Wednesday.

The purpose of the forum was to share experience of roll-out of Ministry’s flagship e-Governance initiative e-office/e-filing system to sensitize all the stakeholders about its importance, and ask them for their active support in its implementation and their key role and responsibilities in “Change Management Process” in working environment, culture, and behavior in federal government/division.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Transport and Information Mian Iftikhar Hussian has said that the Provincial Government has decided to launch E-governance in Transport Department for eradicating corruption and bringing transparency adding that in the first phase, E-payment system will be introduced for tax collection of Peshawar Bus Terminal (PBT).

This, he stated, while attending a presentation of different private companies on E-payment at Peshawar the other day.

Advisor to Chief Minister on Science and Information Technology, Ziaullah Bangash on Wednesday said that all offices are being digitized as year 2020 has been declared as digital transformation in the province.

He said that the government has finalized strategy to take revolutionary steps in the current year towards digitalisation in order to ensure efficient service delivery and transparency.

Islamabad—Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Ms. Anusha Rehman on Friday said e-Governance is being adopted as a tool to achieve goals of transparency and deliver cost-effective public services. At a press briefing here, the Minister said e-Government Intranet has been completely established in Ministry of Information Technology with the main purpose of the e-filing module to promote less paper and digital government.

Secretary IT, Azmat Ali Ranjha, Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Dr. Ismail Shah, Joint Secretary of the Ministry, Syed Khalid Gardezi, a representative of National Information Technology Board (NITB) and other dignitaries attended the briefing. Anusha Rahman said present government has given utmost priority to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, particularly e-government system as the Ministry is emphatically pursing the e-office suite implementation in federal government.

Briefing Milliband about PITB’s Mobile Governance Initiative, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and PITB Chairman Dr Umar Saif explained that in this initiative, government workers are equipped with smartphones and are required to send in time-stamped and geo-tagged pictorial evidence of their field activities.

This would help promote collaboration, digitization and innovation in both traditional socio-economic sectors and new emerging technologies.

According to a statement issued here, he chaired a meeting held in the ministry of P&D regarding introducing and implementing e-government system.

The high ranking officials of top IT companies including foreign and domestic attended the meeting including IT ministry and NADRA.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said that E-government is a much-needed project created to meet the target of making the government paperless.

The minister expressed these views while meeting with a delegation of Huawei Pakistan led by Ethan Sun on Tuesday. CEO Huawei Pakistan; Ahmed Bilal Masood, Director Subsidiary Board & Deputy CEO; Yushaoning, Vice CEO attended the meeting.