Sindh IT board’s draft finalised with focus on e-governance

KARACHI: Sindh minister for information, science and technology has approved the draft for the formation of IT Board Sindh with the focus on automation of Sindh government activities into e-governance.

IT Department Director General Muhammad Yousuf told The News on Saturday that automation of the government activities, establishment of IT University, formation of IT Policy, and job placements for university graduates would be the major objectives of the board.

The board would work under one managing director as the managerial head, while Sindh chief minister has been proposed as its chairman and IT minister as co-chairman. Sindh chief secretary, secretaries of IT, finance, law and P&D departments and DG IT, two members from public sector and six members from private sector would be inducted as members.

Though MD would be selected from the private sector, the board would function under the administrative control of Sindh IT department, the DG informed. “For legal requirements, the draft will be forwarded to law department on Monday.”

Sources said that Sindh was following the footsteps of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IT boards, while Balochistan had also become active in IT policy formation.

Previously, Sindh IT Board was formed in 2002 during the Musharraf government, which was later transformed into IT ministry and the board ceased to exist. However, the IT ministry has very little staff of around 25 people, and it had to outsource all its products.

Muhammad Yousuf said the major purpose of the board was to create a paperless environment in Sindh government along with its 50 departments. “The board will be the centre of all IT requirements of the government and its departments,” he said. “It will also look for common citizen facilitation as well.”

The DG said that initially the IT department has demanded a budget of Rs500 million to get the space for the board and fulfil the basic requirements for the staff.

Earlier, Minister for Information Science and Technology Nawabzada Muhammad Taimur Talpur addressing the meeting of Sindh IT Advisory Committee hoped Sindh government would become a model in e-governance, accordance with modern IT, and would go ahead of other provinces of the country.

He said processing of proposed draft bill has been finalised by the huge efforts of Sindh IT Secretary Ali Bahadur Qazi, IT DG, and other IT specialists, especially IT industry experts Dr Zubair Sheikh, Zain al-Abddin, Saadullah Sheikh, Azhar Rizvi, Khalid Shamsi, Nadim Malik, Asad Arifen, Humayoon Qureshi, Faisal Rao, representatives of Microsoft and others.

Secretary law and his representatives, Department of Finance and members of Planning and Development Board also cooperated for the preparation of the draft bill and assisted the committee with their opinion.

Secretary IS&T and DG briefed the participants regarding the proposed draft bill of Sindh IT board.

The members of the IT Advisory Committee hoped that these efforts for the formation of IT board would ensure the implementation of e-governance in Sindh.

Talpur said after the completion, IT Board Sindh would be profitable, especially in economic stabilisation.