By Anzal Amin
ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Monday tabled the Digital Nation Pakistan Bill in the National Assembly as part of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s national digital agenda spanning economy, socie-ty, and governance.
Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja tabled the bill in the parliament.
The bill aims to transform Pakistan into a digitally empowered nation by fostering a dynamic digital so-ciety, a robust digital economy, and efficient digital governance. The bill, recognising the potential of digital technologies to drive innovation, economic growth and so-cietal well-being, seeks to accelerate sustainable development, enhance public service delivery, and modernise governance for improved transparency and effectiveness.
As per the bill, key governance bodies — the National Digital Commission (NDC), Strategic Oversight Committee (SOC) and the Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) — will be established.
The NDC, chaired by the prime minister and comprising federal and provincial leadership, will set the strategic vision and policy framework for the country’s digital transformation.
Meanwhile, the PDA will implement these policies by coordinating and harmonising digital initiatives across all levels of government and the SOC monitors the PDA’s performance and provides an inde-pendent review to the NDC ensuring alignment with the masterplan.
A cornerstone of the bill is the National Digital masterplan which provides a comprehensive strategy for aligning and optimsing digital initiatives, eliminating redundancies across federal, provincial and lo-cal levels, and driving economic growth through enhanced public service delivery.
The implementation plan under the masterplan will detail specific projects, required resources, time-lines and risk management strategies to ensure its effective execution.
The bill further emphasises effective data governance to ensure secure and responsible data man-agement and prioritises the development of digital public infrastructure and data exchange layer to foster innovation. enhance public services, and safeguard citizen privacy.
Moreover, the enactment of this legislation reflects Pakistan’s commitment to responsibly leveraging digital technologies for economic growth, modern governance, and digital inclusion, aligning the nation pith global best practices in the digital age.
