By: Ahsan Kaleem Khan
In the recent past, Pakistan has taken policy heavy steps to develop digital public infrastructure (DPI) to spur social development and economic growth. It is important to take stock of those efforts and strategise about the future. Digital transformation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping governance globally and public-sector has been flocking to adopt scalable, robust, reliant and interoperable digital and AI solutions.
What we have seen in Pakistan so far is the lack of synergies and absence of a single Gov-stack that can act as a structured approach to digital public infrastructure development through reusable and interoperable digital components, that we will call the “building blocks”. These components provide a foundation for streamlining government services, reducing costs, and enhancing operational efficiency.
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Building blocks
Essentially, there are three components of DPI: Digital Identity Systems, Electronic Payment Systems, and Data Exchange Systems.
Digital Identity Systems: The digital identity systems faciltiate identification of individuals and enable organisations to authenticate the users when accessing digital public services, banking services or healthcare services. In this regard, NADRA provides world class services that can be accessed through APIs for even remote on-boarding of individuals. Though, this is not a widely accepted mode of identification and authentication and still, several services require citizens to be physically present to complete this step. The digital Id issuance stands at 96% of adult population and this can be leveraged to identity marginalized and vulnerable groups to achieve social and economic goals.
Digital Payment Systems: In Pakistan, the payment systems’ standardization and adoption has been led by State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) RAAST instant payment system. This systems aims to enable citizens to make payments, pay taxes, fees, and carry out other financial transaction. These are round-the-clock payment services available to users which is a crucial building block of DPI. However, its adoption is low and Pakistan still remains a cash-based society.
Data exchange and integration systems: The most important building block is the data exchange and integration systems. This block promotes sharing of data-exchange between different entites for better social and economic outcomes. Lack of integrated data sharing architecture, standardized data formats and exchange policies remain a challenge. Hence, instead of letting data sharing remain technically challenging, data exchange systems create standardized methods to gather, store, and share information.This block enables social and economic use cases to be effectively implemented and expanded to previously ignored areas such as enable electronic health records, enable progressive taxation, adoption of artificial intelligence use cases in public-private sector. This adoption can be a real-advantage in service delivery.
What is Government Stack (GovStack)
The GovStackestablishment is the need of the hour. It is the standardized technical framework fundamental for digital components. We see that many players in Pakistan are operating in silos, customized internal workflows that make standardization difficult, and have exceptional number of data points that can be leveraged to achieve efficiency and effectiveness at least in public functioning. However, due to lack of standardization, such as policies around data formats, labeling, security and compliance, storage and accessibility remains a challenge. In a fragmented landscape, NADRA, financial institutions, FBR, private sector etc. all are hoarding data without a central core data layer upon which applications can be built to enable better public policy and private sector business outcomes.
The Government stack (GovStack) which might be developed under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act, must focus on strengthening cross-agency digital architecture, ensuring that government systems are not build in isolation rather as integrated, interoperable solutions. GovStack enables countries to expedite their digital transformation journeys while avoiding vendor lock-in and excessive resource expenditures.
Benefits of GovStack
The adoption of GovStack offers numerous advantages to governments at different stages of their digital transformation:
- Reduced Cost and Time
Traditional software development for government services is expensive and time-consuming. By using pre-defined Building Blocks, governments can significantly cut down development costs and speed up deployment. - Interoperability and Integration
One of the most significant challenges in digital governance is the lack of system integration. GovStack promotes interoperability, ensuring that various government agencies can seamlessly communicate and share data. - Scalability and Flexibility
Digital government services must evolve to accommodate changing citizen needs. The modular nature of GovStack allows for easy upgrades and expansions, ensuring sustainability over time. - Security and Compliance
With cyber-security threats on the rise, GovStack emphasizes secure-by-design principles, ensuring that digital services meet international security and data protection standards. - Vendor Neutrality and Open Standards
Many departments/ministries struggle with vendor lock-in such as case of FBR with PRAL, where proprietary systems limit their flexibility. GovStack’s open-standard approach prevents dependency on specific providers, giving governments greater control over their digital ecosystems.
The Future of GovStack and Digital Governance
As technology evolves, so too will the needs of digital governance. GovStack offers a sustainable and future-proof framework that enables governments to remain agile and responsive. The initiative is not just about technology but about re-imagining governance to be more inclusive, efficient, and citizen-centric.
Moving forward, we can expect increased collaboration between governments, international organizations, and private sector partners to refine and expand the GovStack framework. With ongoing advancements in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and blockchain, the potential for more sophisticated and secure digital government services is immense.
The author, Ahsan Kaleem Khan is a technology policy and cyber security expert.
