Pakistan Rightly Using Emerging Technologies to Improve Governance
An international news platform, “The Diplomat” admired the ongoing technological revolutions in Pakistan. It stated that now a days Pakistan is fighting crime and corruption With technology. This global stir is due to hard work of the Information Technology sector of Pakistan, supported by some smart high-tech professionals and entrepreneurs. The provincial government’s initiative to use information and communication technology (ICT) to improve public services and governance, has attracted a lot of people across the globe. Pakistan Rightly Using Emerging Technologies to Improve Governance.
Dr. Umar Saif, the Chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), has introduced commendable initiatives toward the realization of this goal. The result are obvious. PITB has introduced a number of leading projects related to counter terrorism, crime, law, education, agriculture and many more. A number of facilitation centers have been setup in Punjab to uplift the efficiency and productivity of services provided to public.
Pakistan Rightly Using Emerging Technologies to Improve Governance
PITB’s “Smart Monitoring” initiative remained very effective in improvement of Public schools. It is made accomplished by collecting real-time data on different key performance indicators. To make the process more transparent and increase citizen’s participation, all collected data in this regard is available online for public access.
Different technology initiatives are incorporated in order to fight terrorism, crime and enhance the performance of police. As the Punjab’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) is made computerized as well as digitization of the criminal database and suspect profiling has helped in fearing suspects who were prevaricating justice previously.
Burhan Rasool, the head of software department wing PITB said:
transparency and trust in the public sector can be improved by making citizens a part of the policy making process. Part of this can be achieved by making public the government’s working and data as a way to keep citizens informed about what is happening inside the power corridors
The PITB has also developed Crime Mapping (CM) software which has facilitated police in identifying the developing crime units in the province. The software is also helping the provincial law enforcement agencies in directing electronic crime investigations, building strategies to anticipate, discover and control criminal acts. To eradicate criminals and terrorist activities, the police in Lahore has made it essential for all hotels to use the “Hotel Eye” software to monitor the record and information of all visitors coming there. 43 different criminals are arrested from different hotel by using this software.
The CM software will also help in reducing the corruption in police department. For this different reforms have been made such as “Paperless Policing”. It also includes real-time monitoring of police stations, online FIR submissions and biometric attendance of police personnel.
The explosive boom of Pakistan’s IT industry has begun to penetrate into almost every sphere of public sector by offering new tools and systems to improve their performance. Provincial government is is planning to make technology based interventions in agriculture sector as well.
It always feels good whenever an individual hears about the developments happening in his/her country while being highlighted at a global level. Soon Pakistan will witness an entire tech revolution in the country. (InshALLAH)
Also Read: PITB Proudly Launches 200 Free WiFi Hotspots in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi
