The Federal Government has decided to include Director-General (Technical) lnter-Services Intelligence and Secretary of National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board as Ex-officio members of the National Information Technology Board (NITB).
As per the details, the government will establish a nine-member National Information Technology Board including the DG (Technical) ISI and Secretary National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board as Ex-officio members.
The other members of the board would be the Federal Minister for Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoIT), Secretary MoIT, Secretary Finance Division, Secretary of the division to which business of science and technology stands allocated, Chief Executive Officer of Board, Member lT and any expert from public or private as may be co-opted with the approval of the board.
As per the details, the federal government on the recommendation of the Board shall appoint, an eminent lT professional of known integrity, competence, and expertise in handling lT development projects, CEO for a term of three years extendable for a similar term or terms.
The board shall also provide technical guidance for embedding e-governance in the federal Ministries and Divisions besides promoting efficient and transparent governance.
As per the details, any person in service of erstwhile NITB, within three months of the transfer, shall exercise an irrevocable option either to remain a civil servant or become an employee of the Board from the date of commencement of this Act.
Similarly, where any person does not exercise the option within the said period he shall be deemed to have opted to become an employee of the board.
Meanwhile, every other person, who is not a civil servant, shall stand transferred to the Board on his existing terms and conditions of service including the term of his appointment which he was enjoying immediately prior to commencement of this Act.
Surprisingly the ministry after the enactment of the Act all set to re-hire the DG (Admin) NITB and a four-member committee under the chair of the minister for MoIT will conduct interviews of the selected candidates from Wednesday.
It is pertinent to note that the Ministry of MoIT has also forwarded three candidates’ names to the PM secretariat for the appointment of ED NITB.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of IT claimed that the act has not been enacted yet adding that formation as well as preparing rules of the board will take time. In absence of rules of the board, the board will not be able to hire a third party or hire employees, he added.
It is worth mentioning here that the joint sitting of parliament approved the NITB bill on June 9, 2022, and if the President of Pakistan does not sign the bill in seven days then it will be automatically enacted.
