Opposition parties in Sindh to secure 5 out of 11 seats in Senate Election 2021: Minister

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information Technology Syed Aminul Haq on Monday expressed hope that the Opposition parties in Sindh would secure five out of 11 seats from Sindh in the Senate Election 2021.

He was talking to the media after performing the inauguration of the Panda Mart office, at Bahadurabad here.

He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), and Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) are on the same page and the Senate Election 2021, will be held in a free, fair, and transparent manner.

Syed Aminul Haq said that there were 160 million mobile users in Pakistan in 2020, which have now been increased up to 170 million, constitutes 84 percent of the total population of Pakistan.

Around 80 million people were using broadband facility in Pakistan in the last year, which, he pointed out have now been increased up to the 90 million.

The Federal Minister said that the Ministry of Information Technology had laid the foundation of smart-phone assembling and manufacturing in Pakistan with a vision that the entire population of the country may have access to this facility of modern times.

He said that the Federal IT Ministry was also actively working on the Software Technology Parks projects throughout the country and we already have our IT Park in Lahore and another was inaugurated in Gilgit, in October last year.

He said that the foundation stone of US $ 88 million project of IT Park would be laid at Chak Shahzad in Islamabad by end of this month or in the beginning of the next month. The land has been acquired at Shahra-e-Faisal Karachi for IT Park project in the port city and its PC-I is expected to get approval soon for initiating work on it.

He recalled that when the reservation system of Pakistan Railways faced some problem around 10 days ago, the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), coordinated with the Pakistan Railways in trouble shooting, thus the problem was resolved within 24 hours.

Subsequently the Ministry of Railways requested the Federal IT Ministry to manage the operation of its Data Centre.

He told a questioner that Karachi has over 90 percent literacy rate, and youths of the city are very talented and good education, therefore they be accommodated in the jobs in government, semi-government and private sector, as per merit.

He termed internet connectivity as imperative for building Digital Pakistan in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan. All the companies will receive orders if they got good broadband connectivity, he said.

Earlier, the Federal Minister visited different sections of the newly inaugurated Panda Mart and was briefed by the officials of the company. Speaking on the occasion, he said that the Food Panda is determined to play a very active role to develop a Digital Pakistan as envisioned by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The Federal Minister also highly appreciated the Food Panda for serving the people during the lockdown in the last year during COVID-19 situation and recalled that the Food Panda took the COVID-19 situation as an opportunity rather than a crisis. It was an excellent job, when all superstores and markets were closed, the company delivered the food and general items to the public at their doorsteps, he said.

He advised the Food Panda to also fulfill its social corporate responsibility (CSR) and also contribute in the social welfare activities so as to help the needy and deserving section.