Govt to dissolve National IT Board, set up new body

The government has decided to dissolve the National Information Technology Board (NITB) and create a new body to assume its functions, signalling confusion over cost-cutting and the digital economy agenda.

Minister of State for Information Technology, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, disclosed the decision during a meeting reviewing the Prime Minister's Digital Nation Pakistan initiative. The meeting, chaired by Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, revealed a lack of clarity about the purpose of these changes, with some officials questioning the need for new bodies.

Khawaja announced that the NITB would be replaced by the National Digital Transformation Board, which will also be responsible for training and appointing two digital transformation officers in each ministry. However, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb opposed the idea of appointing civil servants to these roles, suggesting that qualified private sector professionals should be brought in instead.

Both Iqbal and Aurangzeb emphasised the need to use existing infrastructure rather than creating new authorities. "We successfully handled the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) without creating new bodies and brought in $25 billion in investment," Iqbal said, cautioning that setting up new authorities could delay progress by years. "We should not reinvent the wheel, yet we keep establishing new companies and forums," said Aurangzeb.

Khawaja also proposed the formation of a National Digital Commission and the Pakistan Digital Authority, further complicating the digital governance landscape. She reiterated that the NITB, established in 2014, would be dissolved, and the new National Digital Transformation Board would take over its functions.

The NITB was originally formed by merging the Pakistan Computer Bureau (PCB) with the Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) to streamline e-governance and enhance information accessibility. Despite its mandate, the government has now approved the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2024, which envisions the establishment of the Pakistan Digital Authority to drive digitisation and promote e-governance.

The new authority is expected to function autonomously, both financially and administratively, and aims to achieve the goals of the "Digital Pakistan" initiative. Parliament is expected to approve the Digital Nation Pakistan Act by December this year.

However, it remains unclear whether the existing NITB law will be repealed or amended to make way for the National Digital Transformation Board. The planning minister raised concerns about the alignment of these new structures with the federal government's framework, citing the problematic experience of the CPEC Authority as an example of the confusion that new entities can create.