Work on rightsizing of ministries under way

The government was pursuing the process of rightsizing in all the ministries, which would be undertaken in phases, Minister of State for Information Technology (IT) Shaza Fatima told a Senate Standing Committee on Friday.

The committee on Information Technology met here with its chairman Palwasha Mohammad Zai Khan in the chair. The committee was informed that the ministry had been given a deadline of July 31 to finalise the Data Protection Bill.

The minister of state said that the rightsizing of the ministries was under way, adding that the process would be completed in phases with five ministries in each phase. Some institutions would be merged, while some ministries would be abolished, she added.

“Each ministry is preparing its own proposals [for rightsizing],” Shaza Fatima said. “Work is in progress in the Ministry of IT but it is too early to say which institutions under the IT ministry will be abolished. The IT Ministry is going to create Digital Authority under the ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative.”

Officials of the Universal Service Fund (USF) told the committee that the telecom operators contributed 1.5% of their gross revenues to the USF, which was spent on setting up telecom infrastructure in remote areas. They added that USF did not receive funding from the government or donors.

The IT minister of state Shaza Fatima said that in 2013, the then government took Rs60 billion from the USF due to some economic difficulties, adding that Rs10 billion had been returned from that amount so far.