Provincial govt urged to activate its websites

Civil servant says real challenge is to ensure availability of information to rural areas of the province

ISLAMABAD: People get a frustrating experience when they visit websites of the departments of government of Balochistan as information on many of the websites has not been updated for years and hardly provide any fresh information about activities and day-to-day working of the government.

After visiting different departments’ websites, it becomes clear that many provincial departments do not even have a functioning website to facilitate the general public.



The government is unable to provide two-way communication between the citizens and the government institutions to know about their grievances and get feedback.

In recent years, the Punjab government has made significant progress in setting up websites to provide detailed information about the working of different ministries.

However, keeping in view importance of websites as an integrated part of public service delivery mechanism, there is a need to increase the scope and expand outreach of the websites.

Talking to APP, Numair Aslam, a civil servant said, “It is comparatively easy to provide digital services to those living in urban areas of the province. The real challenge is to ensure across-the-board availability of information through digital means to rural areas and remote corners of the province.”



When contacted an official of the Science and Information Technology Department, he denied presence of outdated information on websites, saying, "We are uploading fresh information on websites on a daily basis."

A job-seeker Baz Gull Kakar said people of the province faced difficulties in knowing about the departmental jobs, submitting applications and did not get information about short-listing of candidates, merit lists, date of interviews and final order on websites.
A social activist Israr Asghar said, “Technology is a double-edged weapon in terms of creating inequalities. It is an opportunity to empower everyone, but those who are totally illiterate, are likely to remain the worst affected.”

Makhter Tehsildar Saleem Kakar said, “If there is wrong data in our revenue record about the ownership, possession and cultivation patterns of the agricultural farms, just digitalising information and making it available online will be laudable effort.”
A constructor Jaffar Khan said if the government developed proper information highways and portals, it would save the amount to be spent on physically providing the same services besides reducing the burden on public highways.