Minister of State for IT Ms. Anusha Rahman has said that Telecom Foundation should concentrate on new avenues to enhance the volume of its business activities. She was chairing a performance evaluation meeting of Telecom Foundation (TF) & Pak Datacom here at Islamabad today.
Federal Secretary IT Mr. Azmat Ali Rangha, MD-Telecom Foundation Maj. Gen ® Muhammad Khalid Rao, Chief Executive Pak Datacom Mr. Arshad Kiyani, Member (Telecom) Mudasar Hussain and other senior officials from TF and MoITT were also present in the meeting.
MD TF, apprised the Minister regarding the new initiatives being taken by the Telecom Foundation, which includes subsidized education to the children of serving and retired employees of telecom sector in 12 T.F schools all over the country and educational and vocational technical trainings through TF Institute of Technology & Management, which is functioning under administrative control of Telecom Foundation and offering three years diploma’s in the fields of Civil, Electronic and Telecom Engineering.
The Minister directed the T.F authorities to have a close liaison with the Telecom service providers working here in Pakistan and improve the curriculum of vocational training diplomas in accordance with the requirement of the market so that maximum diploma holders could get jobs after completion of their respective diplomas.
The Minister also desired that volume of welfare activities of TF should also be enhanced because it is a charitable organization and welfare activities are amongst its core objectives. She also desired that a “Welfare Hospital” should be established in collaboration with public private partnership on 26 kanal land which TF is having in sector H-8, Islamabad, near Shifa Hospital.
Chief Executive Pak Datacom also apprised the Minister regarding their ongoing projects which includes data connectivity to FBR. Minister was also informed that International Companies have also shown their interest to work with the Pak Datacom.
So government steal the USF fund and then tell telcos to find other sources of revenue. What sense.
Fixing responsibility for 18th Month negative Progress of Information Technology in Federal Government, Pakistan.
Ministry of Information Technology is still hiding its 18 months progress and shifting blame to Previous Governments.
Ministry of Information Technology need to define its vision and resolve issues of formation of Information Technology Policy, Youtube blockage issue, Grey Traffic, promotion of software industry for GDP growth, cyber law and formation of IT Cadre. The Ministry badly failed to progress as it has no vision and lack of capacity to address these issues. Ministry defined its mission on its website as;
“To create an enabling environment through formulation and implementation of policies (1) and legal framework (2); providing ICT infrastructure (3) for enhancing productivity (4); facilitating good governance (5); improving delivery of public services (6) and contributing towards the overall socio economic growth of the country (7).”
(1) Ministry has an outdated IT policy (2002) and failed to define one in 18th Months.
(2) No legal framework till date.
(3) On ICT infrastructure Ministry is blaming EGD/PCB for providing infrastructure in the past, there is no PSDP projects in the pipeline for provision of infrastructure so far, moreover in 18 months Ministry was only able to make an expenditure of 0.5 million in the head of IT infrastructure in development budget.
(4) No input no output, nil expenditure for enhancing productivity, nil productivity.
(5) What is happening under the buzz word Good Governance, IT Minister is not an IT literate, government has appointed an IT State Minister she speaks English well and has no experience of IT or heading any office. Why she has been given IT Ministry is itself a mystery. There is no Secretary IT, Joint Secretary Development and under her all departments’ heads are assigned on additional charges. May be beside her husband there is no qualified person in Pakistan.
(6) No PSDP project for public delivery improvement in 18 months.
(7) What is socio economic growth of the country without development budget?
It seems that the Ministry is headed by non IT professionals and has only plan to enjoy perks. 80% of the employees of the departments of Ministry of IT are petitioners in various cases against Ministry in Islamabad high court. 90% of IT employees are not given salaries for 13 months. No one is accountable for this good governance and incumbent IT State Minister is only busy in media promotion. She is keeping a sixteen member IT team, headed by director IT for her media promotion only.
The Ministry has to inform the nation what are plans to promote IT in the country or may be after 32 more months, When will it develop IT plan? What is the progress of Member IT and Director IT who are drawing salaries of MP-I and II of Rs. Rs. 350,000 to 450,000/ month from the poor taxpayers’ pockets? What were the TOR for them? Where are the IT Policy and framework and IT cadre. Is the Ministry of IT has adopted IT.
Ministry’s IT Wing is headed by fake certificates holder Director IT and has given additional charge for IT departments. He managed to amend the TOR of Director IT as he was working as acting charge of Director IT in IT Ministry and managed to grab the position. The TOR was hidden from the public so advertisement published was also illegal can be found at the link http://www.jobinpk.com/director-it-mp-ii-job-ministry-of-it-telecom-28-april-2013/. The details were not available at the link as defined in the advertisement also given below. The experience certificate submitted were fake and is not available in the record of Ministry IT. The incumbent Director IT nor could write or read 4 lines of English and has no prior experience of heading an organization or a higher management position. Who is responsible for this good governance? He works as analyst (BPS.17) in Ministry IT for 5 years, in PTCL as assistant web developer and claimed to have worked in Saudi Arabia as network assistant, which are all entry level positions and having no management experience at all.
Pakistan must wakeup now and learn from Bangladesh, India and other developing countries to select the right path of e-Governance. Experimentation is like reinventing the wheel again. We are going against the direction, IT is moving in the world. I request you all to raise your voice for the appointment of IT literate Minister, capable IT leaders and strict punishment for fake IT experts.
Regards,
Muhammad Ali