Pakistan PM orders ministries to complete data digitisation under “Digital Nation” drive

ISLAMABAD, Report By Muhammad Saleem) – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed all federal ministries to take timely steps to provide their data to a national digital platform, as he chaired a review meeting on the Digital Nation Pakistan programme.
The prime minister said a national-level central data centre would play a key role in delivering government services and public facilities. He said digitising ministries’ performance data helps curb corruption and institutional mismanagement, and that bringing sector-wide data together supports economic growth.
He cited data sharing between institutions as a key factor in the successful rollout of the fuel subsidy scheme for deserving groups. He also praised the Health Ministry’s work, with provincial cooperation, on a universal medical record, and the introduction of QR codes to help ensure quality medicines nationwide.
The ministries briefed the meeting on their public services and on supplying data to the central data centre. The Health Ministry gave a special briefing on data provision and the use of digital tools to verify medicine quality.
The IT Ministry said it is working with all relevant ministries on sectoral digitisation, with priority given to health, agriculture and other basic service areas. It added that, together with the Law Ministry, it is working to bring national laws together in one place to help future legislation. Work on priority sectors continues toward digital government services, a digital economy and digital public facilities.
The prime minister told all federal ministries to complete the digitisation of data within a set deadline, in cooperation with provincial governments and relevant bodies.
The meeting was attended by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Cheema, Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal, IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja, and officials of related government bodies.