Keeping up with the century

The people of Pakistan live in a stone age of digital services. It is widely believed that the bureaucrats of a colonial mindset are the principal reason for Pakistan having been left behind the rest of the world by decades. Consider the following four services which are a norm in most developed countries, but unheard of in Pakistan: one, some four million Pakistanis make two to three visits to different banks and offices to pay their vehicle tax every year. This could easily be done by sitting at home and using one of the half a dozen or so phone money transfer services available in Pakistan. Why have Pakistani bureaucrats refused to adopt this methodology?

Two, some seven million Pakistani, mostly senior citizens stand in a queue before various National Savings Centres to beg for the profit on their own investments. Why can everyone's profit automatically not be transferred to the individual bank accounts and everyone simply receive an auto SMS for the amount transferred. The need to make these torturous visits could be completely eliminated. Three, 60 percent of Pakistani children are not registered and have no birth certificate till the age of five. The government has no idea of the presence or absence of 60 percent of our children. No great digital science is needed to record this data and provide a birth certificate to every child, soon after his/her birth. Four, almost 100 percent of Pakistan's bureaucracy cannot or does not respond if you send them an email. Government websites either do not give the email addresses of its officials or these addresses are completely non-responsive. Is it too much to demand that these digital services are either provided or the concerned bureaucrats are replaced with those who can do so?

Naeem Sadiq

Karachi