E-government in Pakistan is fast becoming the key driver of the national economy through service integration between agencies both domestically and internationally. Nations around the world are also prioritising e-government to streamline the flow of information between officials and citizens and to cut operating costs.
Pakistan had launched its e-government initiative few years back with a web-portal designed to enhance citizen services and provide information to residents, visitors and opportunities for business in the country.
The portal integrated the websites of various federal ministries and agencies.
"We want the e-government system to offer concrete benefits for all citizens of the country. Enabling citizens to access information and public services via the Web is enhancing government efficiency, it was officially learnt on May 8.
The government has launched a number of projects and developed a broad range of services and software solutions that would work well with its burgeoning e-government program.
"E-government draws foreign business to a country, and makes it easier for local businesses to advertise themselves to the world. It is a necessary component of a healthy growing economy," said the official.
One of the major programmes launched by Ministry of Information Technology was provision of computers and Internet facilities to Press Clubs of the country.
The main idea behind the project was to make full use of IT in equipping the press clubs as well as the Press Information Department's offices with modern communication facilities to improve their functions.
Majorities of the Press Clubs have already been facilitated under the programme while work is underway to equip the remaining ones with the facility.
Under the project, a total of 122 press clubs in all the four provinces as well as Northern Areas are planned to be equipped with computers and connected to the Internet and e-mail facilities for instant exchange of information.
In addition, 11 press information centres/departments all over the country and two district press clubs in Azad Kashmir are also being provided these facilities.
The project also includes basic automation software at all the locations to facilitate the journalists in producing their news reports and articles on-line. The e-ennoblement of press clubs will result in increased productivity of the journalists as well as reducing the time for forwarding news to different news agencies.
Particularly in small towns and cities where currently limited facilities for sending of news to the publishing agencies, the project will bring drastic reduction in the time for reporting.
Similarly, for receiving information, the press clubs will have the availability of the vast resources of information on the Internet and other news services at their fingertips. Thus they will be well informed and in a better position to develop news stories and articles.
A similar project had already been implemented successfully by the ministry for the District Bar Associations, where online access to statutory and case laws has been provided to the lawyers and the judges.
This project has been highly successful and the user community has given very positive feedback. The IT-enabling of the Press Clubs is also being done on similar lines to extend the benefits of IT to the common man.
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