Information technology: Govt to launch central web portal

Website is more user-friendly, with more responsive features than existing

PESHAWAR: The much-delayed central web portal of the provincial government will be launched on Friday (today). The government was planning to launch the website in 2015.

Officials of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology department said the lack of interest shown by Minister for Information Technology Shahram Khan Tarakai is one of the main causes for delays in launching the web portal.

“The minister is more focused on health than the IT sector,” one of the officials told The Express Tribune. “The web portal was supposed to be launched last year but was delayed for a year.”

The official added the web portal has been ready for a long time.

When contacted,Directorate of Information and Techn ology Director Bilal Jabbar informed The Express Tribune he has given approval to the new web portal www.kpgov.pk which would replace the existing website – www.khyberpakhtunkhwa.gov.pk.

“I have approved the web portal and we are launching its beta version tomorrow,” Jabbar said.



User-friendly interface

Similarly, other officials of the directorate said the central web portal is more user-friendly and dynamic, with more responsive features than the existing portal.

An official of the directorate dealing the web portal said, “The website has good security features having more resistance to hacking then the current web portal.”

The web portal is the central portal for K-P government and all the 32 government departments connected with it.

“We have provided training to the department officials over the web portal and they have been given access to upload their news, tenders and jobs advertisements on the new portal,” said the Directorate of IT Public Information Officer Waqarullah Khan, while speaking to The Express Tribune.

Unveiling the beta version

He added, “The website is running in beta version currently and the departments are uploading their material on it. However, it will be formally launched after a month.”

He maintained that on July 1 (Friday) they will launch the beta version substituting the old portal.

“We will run the web portal in beta version for a month for collecting feedback and checking for any technical problems if countered,” he said. He pointed out, “They have been testing the web portal for months and they don’t think it will face any major issues.”

When asked about the delay in launching the web portal, he said the government departments wanted changes in their pages according to their needs which consumed time.



“The changes were to be made in the programming,” he said. “It was a time-consuming process as the web portal was thoroughly checked after the changes.”

“Now, everything is complete,” the official added. “The focal persons of the departments have been trained for using the web portal. Each focal person has his own dashboard and the department secretary has separate dashboard.”

He added they are training the focal persons of 73 directorates of the K-P government which will also be linked to it, while the district governments will be added later to the page.

The official said the e-services provided by the K-P government had no data bank.

“We have put all the e-services on the web portal and now many people, who had no information about the e-services could access them from the web-portal,” he added. This includes the online FIR, K-P right to information, K-P right to services, arms licenses, driving license and others.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2016.