A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication was held at the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Kauda Babar. At the outset, the National Information Technology Board Act 2022 approved by the National Assembly was reviewed.
Officials from the Ministry of Information Technology and the NITB told the committee that the purpose of the proposed bill is to make the NITB an autonomous body so that the work of the institution can be further expedited and improved by removing obstacles.
Officials said that being a subsidiary, NITB often faces financial delays, which is hurting the fast-growing sector, especially IT.
The committee meeting was attended by Leader of the House, Senator Dr. Shahzad Waseem, Senator Sana Jamali, Senator Shahadat Awan, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada, Senator Afnanullah Khan, Senator Palwasha Mohammad Zai Khan, Senator Seemee Ezdi, Senator Naseema Ehsan, Senator Rubina Khalid, Secretary Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Chairman PTA and officials from NITB .
Senator Dr. Shahzad Waseem, Leader of the House in the Senate, asked what would be the effect of NITB’s autonomous status and how it would benefit the country.
Responding to this, the ministry officials said that NITB has been successfully providing quality IT services to the government of Pakistan including e-office, NCOC application and others. He further said that NITB was also working on human resource development.
The ministry officials briefed the committee about Pakistani online freelancers and the issues faced by them. The committee meeting also reviewed in detail the steps taken by the Ministry for the processing of financial transactions / remittances of online freelancers in particular.
Chairman Committee Senator Kauda Babar told the committee members that freelancers in Pakistan are generating millions of rupees in the country without any government support.
He further said that lower and middle class youth are associated with this sector. These young people can be the best source of valuable resources for the country with government support and encouragement. Ministry officials said that they are in constant touch with freelancers and other stakeholders.
