Ministers object to creation of more authorities

Iqbal and Aurangzeb stress the need for utilising existing infrastructure for digitisation

ISLAMABAD:

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal raised objections to the formation of a National Digital Commission and the Pakistan Digital Authority, instead called for using the current available infrastructure and taking advantage of innovation in the scientific field.

The ministers along with Minister of State for Information Technology (IT) Shaza Fatima jointly chaired a meeting of the Committee for Digital Nation Pakistan, constituted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The committee received a briefing about the proposed Pakistan Digital Authority.

Finance Minister Aurangzeb said that creating committees upon committees would not serve the purposed, adding no matter how many new institutions were established, nothing would happen.

Iqbal said that it took two years for a new institution to become fully functional. He cited the examples of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which continued without any authority and attracted $25 billion investment in three years.

He suggested that all the work should be done within the existing infrastructure. "We have to take advantage of innovation and change," Iqbal told the meeting. "We built modern technology institutions during our previous term. If we do not adopt modern technology, we will be left behind," he added.

Earlier, in a briefing on the Pakistan Digital Authority, Shaza Fatima said that how a data authority could be created in the presence of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) because as per law, NADRA would monitor digital identity.

The IT secretary said that there were two main challenges related to data: what were the guidelines for data transfer, data privacy and cyber security and who could access NADRA data to what extent and at what level the data could be used.

The finance minister underscored the importance of taking the private sector forward in order to withdraw the government from every initiative. He said that the function of the Law Department was to assist and support the government and not to dictate how the government should operate.