A parliamentary panel has unanimously approved the National Information Technology (NIT) Board Bill, 2019 to pave the way for the federal government to introduce e-governance in ministries and divisions for good governance.
A meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Information, Technology and Communication chaired by Ali Khan Jadoon was informed that law has been designed to introduce e-governance at federal government level to bring about good governance.
Senior officials of the ministry while briefing the committee informed it that the NIT Board would take necessary steps after the approval of law to initiate e-governance at federal level (in ministries/divisions) and would also lend help to the provincial government.
The meeting was further told that the board would also perform the functions of a coordinator among the ministries and divisions. The official informed the meeting a national disaster IT action plan would be developed to provide foolproof security to data against all calamities. Under the law, NIT Board would be constituted with nine members to be headed by the chief executive officer appointed by the federal government whereas the President of Pakistan would be chairman of the board, the officials added. The permission of the concerned department would be mandatory for the use of data for commercial purpose, they added.
Senior officials of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) while briefing the committee on SIM cards sale stated that no one is allowed to sell manual SIM card and if this practice is going on in some areas, it is totally illegal and PTA will take action on complaints.
However, some members wanted to know whether PTA blocks the SIM cards of those persons found involved in financial crimes and whether those persons are allowed to get SIM cards reissued. The PTA officials stated that mobile phone of the person involved in financial crime is forfeited by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA); however, there is no restriction of non-issuance of SIM to him after he completes his sentence.
The committee unanimously confirmed the minutes of its previous meeting held on 26-08-2019.
The PTA officials apprised the committee that complaints regarding online contents would be registered in PTA. The section 33 of PEMRA Act empowers PTA to just block objectionable contents but cyber crime is not the PTA's subject. They added that if any complaint is registered which is other than contents, the PTA sends it to Federal Investigation Authority (FIA).
A statement issued said that while informing the committee about the criteria adopted for awarding the contract to a company with regard to the IT Park in the federal capital, the project director stated that IT Park will be functional in August 2022.
The project director further stated that four companies were short-listed for awarding the contract and no complaints were received against companies from 2017 to February 2018. While briefing regarding releasing the dues to 200 regular employees of Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) on account of pay and pension increases for the year 2017-18 and 2018-19, the managing director TIP informed that all the dues of regular employees have been released.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, Muhammad Abdul Ghaffar Watto, Muhammad Aslam Khan, Muhammad Hashim, Ali Gohar Khan, Ayesh Rajab Ali, Maiza Hameed, Mahesh Kumar Malani and Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah. The meeting was also attended by minister for IT&T and senior officers of the Ministry of IT & T, Law & Justice and PTA.
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