Adoption of E-governance must to enhance coordination: PM

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday underlined the need to bring about a positive change in the mindset of people serving in public sector for adoption of E-governance in order to improve efficiency and enhance coordination in the government’s functioning.
He expressed these views while chairing a high level meeting on E-governance at the Prime Minister’s Office.
The PM said for the attainment of present government’s agenda for good governance, the implementation of E-governance in public sector was necessary. He was of the view that with the use of technology and adoption of E-governance, they could overcome redundancies, enhance efficiencies and promote transparency and accountability which were the hallmarks of good governance.
The meeting was informed by Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman that Pakistan stood 156th in the international E-governance ranking.
Terming it a sorry state of affairs, Nawaz emphasised that in order to take Pakistan forward, they needed to immediately start implementing E-governance and the first stage in this connection was to automate ministries and departments for fast track and knowledge based decision-making. Underscoring the need for change with the developments taking place in the world, Nawaz said Pakistan could not afford to lag behind in bringing into use the latest techniques and methodologies to the system of governance.
He said that his government always attached high priority to the induction of innovations and modernisation in the public sector and recalled that the Pakistan Muslim League-N led government during 1997-99 introduced first IT policy in the country. The meeting also discussed various proposals and means to move forward in the direction of complete implementation of e-governance in the public sector. Overall performance of the public sector also came under discussion during the meeting. Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Minister of State for Science and Technology Khurram Dastageer, Shaukat Tareen and officials of the IT Ministry and the PM’s Office also attended the meeting.