ISLAMABAD: National Information Technology Board (NITB) Director-GeneralFaisal Iqbal Ratyal on Wednesday briefed the National Assembly’s StandingCommittee on Information Technology and Telecommunication about NITB’scurrent and upcoming projects.
According to the NITB official, the board plans to convert all federalgovernment offices into “e-offices” by June 2020.
“As of now, the Finance Division, Privatization Division, IT and TelecomDivision along with 10 other departments have achieved almost 100pcautomation,” the DG stated. “These ministries are at ‘Level-4’ [ofautomation] which means that there is only 10pc paperwork and that too incase of highly classified documents. Everything else is electronic.”
Next to these, at ‘Level-3’ are Aviation Division, Defence ProductionDivision and Power Division, he said.
“There are 15 departments at ‘Level-2’ including Information andBroadcasting Division, Foreign Affairs Division and Law and JusticeDivision. Until these divisions are fully automated, the systems andinfrastructure already owned by the departments are being utilised whilethe automation process is underway.”
He said only one department, the Industries and Production Division, is at‘Level-1’, while there are several at ‘Level-00’ including Human RightsDivision, Railways Division, Climate Change Division and Water ResourcesDivision.
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“These departments don’t even have the equipment or other related technicalcapabilities required for automation.”
The parliament members in attendance expressed concerns over lack of moderntechnological equipment in many significant departments. The NITB DGassured that the board is focusing on these departments as a priority.
In addition to this flagship project of NITB, Faisal told the committeethat NITB is also in the process of launching a Whatsapp-like software,besides an alternative to the commercial emailing systems.
