Federal Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Monday assumed the charge of Ministry for Information Technology and Telecommunication to implement an ambitious agenda of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led coalition government for knowledge economy and digitisation, and to give a boost to IT exports.
Talking to Business Recorder, ministry spokesperson Sagheer Ahmad Wattoo said that the minister soon after his arrival chaired a meeting where Secretary IT Ministry Aamir Ashraf Khawaja gave him a detailed briefing on overall working of the ministry, its different wings and subordinate offices. The minister was also briefed on ongoing development projects.
The minister on the occasion reiterated the government's resolve to take concrete steps for strengthening the IT sector. He called upon the officers to work as a team and contribute their best to that end. According to PTI manifesto 2018, the party will champion Pakistan's journey towards a knowledge economy and digitisation, and boost the IT exports, improve infrastructure, uplift human capital, incentivise innovation and encourage entrepreneurship.
Pakistan's ICT sector exports have shown consistent growth in recent years. However, the IT sector stands far from its potential and exports hover around US $2 billion. The primary reason is that Pakistan is uncompetitive in international market due to repressive policies enforced by FBR along with lack of quality human resource, IT infrastructure, government sponsorship and innovation, said the PTI manifesto.
The government envisages establishing a Knowledge Economy Authority with cross-sectional powers across government departments to end fragmented approach and adopt a central strategic direction towards digitalisation. The party also envisaged to launch the Digital Transformation Initiative Program for digital infrastructure, citizen services and other e-government programs.
According to the manifesto, the PTI government will create and implement the National Digital Policy to ensure privacy, security, standardisation and data sharing across all stakeholders. It will create and implement a regulatory and legal framework to enable open government data and platform for shared services, besides establishing a National Outreach Scholarship Program to identify best minds and fully fund their placement in the top institutions.
The PTI envisages transforming public administration with e-governance initiatives to facilitate citizens' access to justice, rights and other public services. There are multiple issues in the governance system of Pakistan including inefficient data collection system and record keeping, lack of coordination between various departments, black economy, tax evasion, and bureaucratic hurdles in solving public issues at the federal and provincial levels. The government will ensure full capitalisation of digital financial services to supplement digitalisation of documentation.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui as Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication. Siddiqui is convener of Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P). According to analysts, Siddiqui has apparently no experience of information technology sector and was not even member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication during his last tenure as member of the Parliament.
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