LAHORE: Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Chairman Dr Umar Saif has said that the Punjab government is focused on IT-aided governance reforms which enable it to interact with citizens for better service delivery and provide it with direct suggestions from the public for further expanding the scope of the public service in government institutions.
In a dialogue with the participants which lasted over one and a half hours in the famous programme ‘Breakfast with Jang of Jang Media Group’ on "Role of Technology in the Transformation of Our Society," here on Wednesday, Dr Saif said the governance reforms through information technology started by Punjab province were now being replicated in other provinces, including Sindh, KP, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), besides foreign countries, including Nigeria, Armenia, Nepal which asked the PITB to assist them in enabling the reforms in different sectors.
He said, “Yesterday, Director Health Care of Bill Gates Foundation visited and sought the PITB support to expand the Punjab vaccinator tracing programme globally under the Foundation. The vaccination coverage in Punjab has increased to 97 percent from 34 percent after the e-Vaccs application launched.”
E-Vaccs-smartphones were given to vaccinators in Punjab to digitise their vaccination activities. The vaccinators are able to take photograph of every immunised child and share the complete data with name, age, address, father’s phone number and immunisation history with the server through purpose-built smartphones. Through an arrangement with the mobile companies, the child’s father/guardian would be communicated the complete schedule for vaccination. Moreover, a day or two before the next vaccination date, a reminder SMS would be sent to parents.
Following the success of the programme, same is being replicated in KP where vaccination coverage has increased to 71 percent as well, Dr Saif disclosed. This is how technology enabled reforms improve the service delivery of the public sector and governments, he said.
Sharing some of the IT-enabled reforms in Punjab, the PITB chairman said that two major sectors, Police and Provincial Revenue Department, were focused to change the Thana and Pitwari culture in Punjab. This was an uphill task as both systems were given by the British government in the United India to rule here.
The British rulers had empowered Patwari to the extent that it had played with the Fard (document of ownership of rural land) by establishing a parallel economy which need to be broken scientifically. The Fard is an important document for every transaction between the two parties.
Similarly, 26 registers are maintained in a police station and registration of an FIR is in the first register. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC), once an FIR is registered the police have to produce the accused and recovery from him before a court. Thus it empowers the police Moharar that he can register a fake FIR.
These are the issues which need to be understood first before IT enabled reforms to change the Thana and Pitwari culture in Punjab.
Dr Saif said that in land revenue reforms, 24,800 mozaajat (rural land units) have been computerised. This has enabled the public to get E-Fard conveniently. Secondly, Grawadri and Miswai are two other areas of land revenue reforms. The reforms in the sector have also helped the government a lot in the last wheat procurement campaign.
The digital data disclosed that thousands of acres of land were wrongly declared as wheat growing area while no such land existed but the middlemen were selling wheat to government on this land purchased from farmers at lower price.
Furthermore, e-stamp was introduced which increased the land revenue by 30 percent in one fiscal year which depicted that fake stamp papers were being sold and used in land transactions in Punjab. For this, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken keen interest and worked a lot to amend the 1899 Stamp Act by engaging the State Bank of Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistan and other authorities concerned. With the chief minister's efforts, Punjab has been able to establish its own treasury, and Bank of Punjab (BoP) helped the public to get non-judicial stamp papers from BoP branches. The electronic system has been developed to keep the record of land transactions.
To change the Thana culture, the PITB first established their front desks in police stations where PITB staff operates to register a complaint while the CPO, CCPO and other top officials in the evening decide whether an FIR should be registered on the complaint or not. This was the step was initiated to change police station culture. Once a complaint is registered in electronic system of the police, the person responsible has to decide about disposal of it within next 72 hours, either by giving a solid justification or registering an FIR on the complaint and forwarding it for further proceedings, Dr Saif said. He said over 1.1 million complaints had been registered in the system so far. He said 850,000 FIRs had been registered using the system.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, after assuming the office, had visited Punjab and PITB. He asked the PIBT to assist the Sindh police in replicating the same system in the province. The PITB has been assisting the Sindh police and response from them is overwhelming, Dr Saif said.
Besides, Safe City Project is also part of modern policing. Dr Saif quoted the UK police chief when the he met with him for the replication of Police Command and Control Centre, as saying, "This will also change the policing culture." The PIBT chairman said the demand of rural and urban policing was different. In urban policing, support of forensic and surveillance are required for better service delivery and outcome, he said. So the safe city project is leading the policing system towards the modern lines, he added.
Furthermore, the Safe City Project will also change the traffic culture. Traffic wardens intervention will be minimised. Traffic violation challens will be sent to the violators’ home address. Besides, Rasta Application for smartphones is ready for launch. Through this app the users would be able to get traffic situation through Google satellite maps and information updated by the traffic wardens in the system. Furthermore, the public will also be able to get learner’s driving licence, pay the challens amount through smartphone application, Dr Saif disclosed.
Responding to a question on government communication security on Internet, he said the Punjab government has developed its own server while government officials are also using official email to communicate in official matters. He said not a single website of Punjab government or maintained by PITB had been hacked during the recent hacking in which ‘Ransomware’ crippled the system globally, including in the UK and the US. He said the data centre of the Punjab government was secure.
To another question, Dr Saif said that the universities and other educational institutions should be free from politics, besides research culture should be developed in universities.
On student enrolment in schools and "ghost" teachers, Dr Saif said that there was not a single "ghost" teacher in Punjab. ‘Anyone can check school data anytime at www.open.punjab.gov.pk where real time live data of schools' students and teachers' attendance and facilities of schools were updated’, he said. Furthermore, if a school shows zero attendance of student or teacher, the deputy commissioner of that area is asked to address the issue. Same system is also replicated in Sindh but, due to administrative issues there, the results were not the same as achieved in Punjab. In Punjab, various disciplinary actions are being taken against the teachers on absence, whereas, no such actions so far have been possible in Sindh yet, he disclosed.
Similarly, in total 143 Tehsil Headquarters Hospital (THQs) and District Headquarters Hospitals, 786 biometric devices were installed for doctors and allied staff's attendance which increased the attendance from 30 percent to 51 percent. Now the PITB daily makes duty roster and it was pasted in the DHQ and THQ hospitals. Now the attendance has reached 83 percent from 51 percent. The government has also started another technology-enabled project Electronic Medical Record System with the support of Indus Hospital. The system will be paperless and doctors will have to made entries of every procedures themselves. This will ensure their presences and they would attend the patients as well. The project is started with 40 THQ and DHQ hospitals which will be completed by June 2018 while remaining will also implemented same system in the second phase, he added.
Earlier, Sarmad Ali of Jang said that IT had been changing the lifestyle of the public. The IT-enabled reforms are vital to governance. He appreciated the dynamic leadership qualities of Dr Umar Saif in the field of IT.
Moderator of the dialogue Sikindar Lodhi briefly explained the Breakfast with Jang and objectivity of discussion on the topic of "Role of Technology in the Transformation of Our Society." He opined that the technology had mainly distracted society and people on social media were not doing constructive debate.