PRIME Minister Imran Khan, on Thursday, launched another important initiative of his Government which is
aimed at unleashing the tremendous potential for growth and development with focus on information technology. The Digital Pakistan vision is aimed at improving citizens’ quality of life and economic wellbeing by ensuring availability of accessible, affordable, reliable, universal and high quality ICT services.
The world is changing rapidly and adoption of modern technologies is a pre-requisite if we want to keep pace with other countries. Pakistan is already among the top performers and users of technology in the world and the information technology industry in the country is doing well and competing favourably with those of other countries like Singapore, Indonesia, China, Malaysia and even India. What we have so far achieved in the field of IT and telecommunication is mainly because of the visionary approach of then Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman who convinced the then Government to make substantial allocations for S&T and especially IT and telecom. It was because of his efforts and hard work that the country was placed on the map of IT world but regrettably the tempo was not maintained by the succeeding governments and as a result we could not realize the export targets for software as envisioned in the first IT policy. Pakistan, which has about 60% of its 200 million population in the 15 to 29 age group, represents an enormous human and knowledge capital. Pakistan has more than 2000 IT companies and call centres and the number is growing every year. Pakistan has more than 300,000 English-speaking IT professionals with expertise in current and emerging IT products and technologies.
More than 20,000 IT graduates and engineers are being produced each year. All this shows the potential is there and what we need is clear-cut policies and their implementation in letter and spirit. Prime Minister Imran Khan has boldly acknowledged that he should have launched the digital Pakistan initiative much earlier because it was last year that the Ministry of Information Technology came out with the Digital Pakistan Policy, comprehensive document covering all aspects of the issue. It is often said and rightly so that we are quick at formulating and launching policies, visions and initiatives but pay only lip service to actual implementation. The things are likely to change as the Prime Minister has assigned the responsibility of implementation to a vibrant lady Tania Aidrus, a senior Google executive who quit her position to lead the initiative. Five strategic pillars of the initiative – access and connectivity, digital infrastructure, digital skilling and literacy, innovation and entrepreneurship – as identified by her, show that the Government was determined to make ICT a broad enabler of every sector of socio-economic development.
There is also much to be learnt from the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), which has to its credit hundreds of initiatives that are in place in different departments and are contributing towards overall transparency of governance. What Punjab has achieved in different areas of IT application needs to be replicated in other provinces as well as at federal level. Well-coordinated and well-knit plans should be launched to promote the use of technology in education, health, agriculture and other key socio economic sectors. The Prime Minister also desired paperless working in government offices and cited the example of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital where its introduction seventeen years back helped plugged leakages. However, we would point out that mere digitization is unlikely to lead to good governance and transparency unless the overall work culture is changed and there are honest and dedicated people sitting at the top to take advantage of the computerization to improve performance and output of their organizations. Otherwise, we have seen that despite computerization of the land record, people still are at the mercy of Patwaris and corruption is as rampant as before. Mobile broadband penetration is resounding but in view of the growing demand for high bandwidth the Government should fast track introduction of 5G technology.
