NA body Recommends Rs 32.7 Billion Budgetary Proposals For 2020-21

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Wednesday recommended the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for 2020-21 amounting Rs 32.7 billion.

The committee met under the chairmanship of Ali Khan Jadoon where it was also revealed that more than 50 million cyber attacks were carried on NTC’s national data center during the last one year, but the data remains safe.

NA body Recommends Rs 32.7 Billion Budgetary Proposals For 2020-21

The Joint Secretary Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication (IT&T) briefed the Committee about the PSDPs for 2020-21. Joint Secretary Ministry of IT Taimur Khan told the committee that during the last year Rs 32.9 billion was demanded from the government for development projects but Rs 12 billion was allocated against it while more than Rs 34 billion was demanded for next financial year.

SCO Brigadier Khalid Butt gave a detailed briefing on its ongoing and new projects and said that Next Generation Mobile Services has an ongoing scheme for which 50% budget has been allocated, and one billion rupees have been demanded for the next financial year budget for this project.

He said that 820 km of optical fiber from Khunjerab to Rawalpindi has been added under the Pak China Economic Corridor (CPEC). In six months, 25 per cent revenue of the project was deposited to the government. Under Phase Two of the project Optical fiber to be added from Rawalpindi to CPEC route. This is an important project in terms of security of around 9600 km, said SCO officials, adding that  Rs. 230.5 million have been sought to implement the PECA Act and extend the system of DIRBS to Azad Kashmir and GB.

If there is no damage to the cable internet, the life of fiber optical is about 30 years. There is also an optical fiber protection project from Khunjerab to Rawalpindi proposed by the NITB officials related to avoid data theft of government employees and WhatsApp hacking and demanded of the government Rs 57 million in the next budget.

 Cabinet has imposed ban on government employees for using mobile WhatsApp and they would provide a whatsapp like platform to employee and data would be hosted by NTC.

After detail discussion/deliberations, the Committee recommended to approve all the PSDPs and directed the Ministry of Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs to provide the required funds to the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication (IT&T) in the better interest of the country.

 The Committee deferred the agenda “Complete details on all the vacant positions in the Ministry of IT & T and its attached Departments; Promotion/seniority due of the incumbents; reason of pending matters on the promotions and Determination/identification of the persons responsible of it” till its next meeting.

 The Committee unanimously confirmed the minutes of its previous meeting held on 22-01-2020.

 The meeting was attended by Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, Sardar Muhammad Khan Laghari, Muhammad Aslam Khan, Ms. Javairia Zafar Aheer, Ms. Kanwal Shauzab, Muhammad Hashim, Ms. Romina Khursheed Alam, Ms. Shamim Ara Panhwar, Mr. Mahesh Kumar Malani and Syed Mehmood Shah, MNAs. The meeting was also attended by senior officers of the Ministry of IT & T, and other Project Directors.

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