Prime Minister Imran Khan has launched the ‘Digital Pakistan’ campaign. The inauguration ceremony was held at the Prime Minister’s Office in Islamabad.
While addressing the launch ceremony, PM Khan said that Pakistan is regaining its past glory on the global stage.
Once there was a time when we fought other countries’ wars for money. Now Pakistan is emerging as a stable economy and peacemaker in the world.
The initiative is a part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s digitization program, which aims to use the latest technologies for public welfare. The issue of cybersecurity will also be dealt with under this initiative, he said.
Under this program, the government and private sector will work in collaboration to towards a digitally progressive and inclusive Pakistan.
One of the key initiatives under this program, PM Khan said, will be to move towards e-governance to curb corruption in government departments.
We’re getting a lot of resistance from our departments. But unfortunately, they won’t be able to stop it.
The government has also hired a senior ex-Google employee, Tania Aidrus, to head the digitization campaign. Tania Aidrus has resigned from her previous position as Director, Product, Payments for Next Billion Users at Google. Prior to that, she was the Country Manager for South Asia Emerging Markets at Google.
Known as one of the top Google Executives, Tania has moved to Pakistan from Singapore to lead the initiative.
Key Features of Digital Pakistan Campaign
- Access and Connectivity: To ensure every Pakistani has access to the internet.
- Digital Infrastructure: To enable the youth to use smartphones for constructive purposes.
- E-governance: To digitize intra-government communications and correspondence, introduce paperless governance, and to digitize government services for public to increase efficiency.
- Digital Skills and Literacy: To help tech graduates secure relevant jobs.
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship: To provide an enabling environment for start-ups to flourish.
good initiative
nothing will come of it because this is a democratizing technology and it threatens the rule of the army.
So what is the role of MoIT if this initiative is to be led by an expat Pakistani??
Most of the IT ministry budget goes to SCO which is the army’s telco. IT ministry can’t really afford to hire any IT experts. The regulator PTA is busy stopping the adoption of digital technologies by banning websites and putting up road blocks wherever it can.
They should start by reducing taxes on telecoms services and equipment. Then reign in PTA and stop them from blocking websites willy nilly. They should also get rid of the blas phemy law because it is impeding the country’s progress. These are the things they have to do before they can even talk of digitization.