The Ministry of IT and Telecommunication (MoITT) has prepared an initial draft of the Data Governance Policy.
According to the sources in MoITT, the process of consultation with all stakeholders on the policy is ongoing, and the policy will be finalized after input from the stakeholders.
Sources in MoITT told ProPakistani the purpose of this policy is to define the roles and responsibilities for different data creation and usage types and to establish clear lines of accountability and protection. This policy will be important to improve the maintenance and quality of data and it defines various attributes related to data governance.
According to MoITT Officials, the MoITT is taking serious steps to protect the online data, information, and privacy of Pakistani Citizens. The Data Protection Bill has been prepared by the Ministry in this regard which was approved (in principle) by the cabinet in February 2022. However, the bill is now under review at the PM advisory council for IT and Digital Economy.
The MoITT prepared the first draft of the bill in 2018, and a new draft was introduced in 2020 with some changes. Later on, this draft was changed to the ‘Personal Data Protection Bill Consultation Draft 2021’. The same was approved by the federal cabinet in February 2022 but it could not be introduced in Parliament.
