A parliamentary panel raised question marks on the country’s technological capabilities which failed in giving advance information, tracking and identification of Mullah Mansoor, top Taliban leader who was allegedly killed in Pakistan earlier this week.
The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication grilled Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication for not introducing latest technologies to meet modern world requirements.
“Mullah Mansoor Taliban leader was allegedly killed in Pakistan and technically we should have knowledge in advance about his presence, but unfortunately US made a call to Prime Minister of Pakistan after the incident and informed him”, observed the Committee which met with Shahi Syed in the chair.
Committee chairman termed it a big jolt and raised question marks on the country’s technological capabilities, as it is yet to identify the killed person.
The committee recommended for increasing the budget to introduce latest technologies in the country to meet modern world requirements.
Senator Rehman Malik said that US controls drone technology through satellite from Arizona and Pakistan lacks this technology. Previous government had demanded of the US for the drone technology, but it was denied.
He further said that the passport of Mullah Mansoor seems to fake/forged. The passport issued in 2011 should have the old ID card number not the ID card issued in 2012. The old card number shown in the ID card is manual and its number is not the same.
IT ministry officials informed the committee that a state of the art PC-1 has been prepared and submitted to Planning Commission for giving solution against cyber security threats to Prime Minister Secretariat. It was further revealed that a request for providing WiFi and biometric system to the PM secretariat was received and ministry has prepared PC-1 in this regard.
The committee was further briefed on the development and non-development for different organization of the ministry. The committee sought records from the ministry for providing training to government officials under the e-office initiatives.