Day: December 16, 2022

ISLAMABAD: Terming the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector as the “game changer” for Pakistan’s economy, President Dr Arif Alvi has urged the need to bring a paradigm shift in our ideas and attitudes and improve our intellectual and innovation abilities, accelerate the speed manifold for making fully solid policies which should not be rolled back by the change in government.

He said we should put our administrative and political capital for time bound implementation by shunting out lethargy, status quo and inertia, and find out of the box solutions to the existing and emerging issues and challenges and fully capitalize on opportunities.

He said with right steps taken we can earn US$ 15 billion per year in the IT sector in two to three years’ time period. The President expressed these views while addressing the launching ceremony of Web 3.0, at Punjab Information Technology Board, Lahore, on Friday.

Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, Minister Finance Punjab, Dr Arslan Khalid, Special Advisor to Chief Minister on Information Technology, Syed Bilal Haider, Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), Dr Sarfraz Khurshid, Vice Chancellor of Information Technology University (ITU), Lahore, IT professionals, entrepreneurs, and media persons attended the event.

Addressing the ceremony, the President said that there was a pressing need for our political, administrative, and intellectual capital to fully focus to bring in Artificial Intelligence powered work processes in public and private sector coupled with adopting a much faster pace than the current level, technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, internet of things, cyber security and cyber defence, virtual and augmented reality and quantum computing to bring delivery of services and quality of products and services at par with international level.

He said the world was entering into next level of defense system which was cyber security and cyber defense. He said currently Russia-Ukraine war had amply demonstrated the power of Cyber security and cyber defense to paralyze the public services delivery and communication and connectivity of the rival’s territory.

He added that unfortunately in a report published on international ranking on August 22 Cyber security Pakistan was not mentioned at all. He said in terms of generating new and creative ideas, Pakistan was second to none but the need of the hour was information and data sources.

He said the current level of human resource and technology was unable to handle the immense data being generated around the world. He said around 80 million trained human resource is required only in the cyber field if we are able to train our human resource in this sector alone, we can overcome the unemployment in the country and provide high paying jobs to our youth.

This, he said, can be achieved by rethinking and resetting our entire education system in a mode which is capable of providing high quality education and skills in shortest possible time period to our youth by the use of online and hybrid mode and by extending its reach to the masses in such a manner that no candidate is refused or denied his right to get education and skills, he added.

The President said the entire world is looking towards Pakistan because of our youth bulge, they need trained and skilled youth and young blood to fuel the rapidly developing world of Information Technology powered by Artificial Intelligence and quantum computers to leapfrog in the fourth industrial revolution to the next level.

He said if we failed to develop this precious human resource in an accelerated manner there is a fear that this untrained youth bulge will become a burden on national economy.

He said we have been producing doctors, engineers and other professional by spending scarce national resources but unfortunately these highly educated and quality human resource was exported to other countries where they contributed immensely in growth and development of their host country and the same time deprived our country of this precious human resource resulting into acute shortage in almost all sector of national life.

This trend, he said, needs to be reversed by creating enabling conditions in the country for their willing retention by promoting online sale and marketing of the talent of our human resource and products and services which, he said, will eventually improve current status of our standing in the comity of the nations.

The President said that Prime Minister’s digital skills development program and such programs could be replicated as fast as possible to exponentially increase the number of skilled professionals and imparting digital skills to Pakistani youth.

He said there was a pressing urgency to fully develop our ICT sector and multiply our IT exports by overcoming the dearth of educated and trained human resources, improving the overall ease of doing business and the IT ecosystem of the country, embracing innovation, and adopting forward looking policies.

Dr Arif Alvi said the world was fast moving toward quantum computing which were million times faster than our existing most advance super computer. He we should setup a board by roping in diaspora to create a system to take up research and developing in quantum computing and forging alliances and linkages with the R and D institutions for its adopting on fast-track basis.

He said IT and AI can bring revolution in our health sector by creating chat bots, online and web based help services, using conventional and social media to educate the masses regarding nature and wherewithal of communicable and non-communication diseases and promoting preventive mode of treatment to reduce the disease burden as Pakistan with its scarce resources is not in a position to provide curative treatment to its entire population.

The President called for improving cooperation and coordination among the Federation and its constituent units to patronize and promote start-up ecosystem, bringing women workforce and Differently Abled persons into productive economic stream to fully exploit the enormous business opportunities in national, regional and global markets through physical and online marketing.

He said almost 2.2 million people had already benefited from the Prime Minister’s digital skills development program and such programs could be replicated and expanded easily to increase the number of skilled professionals and imparting digital skills to Pakistani youth.

Dr Arsalan Khalid while addressing the occasion said that Pakistan could overcome its financial problems by focusing on human resource development and IT sector. He said that a reference policy document was being prepared to provide a roadmap for the development of the IT sector, particularly in the Web 3.0 domain.

Chairman PITB, Syed Bilal Haider, briefed the participants about the achievements of PITB, and its role in the development of the country’s IT sector. He said almost 500 startups had already started functioning. He informed that Rs137 billion had been collected in lieu of various taxes in Punjab through the digitalization of various services.

He informed that Punjab had planned to undertake Rs450 billion worth of procurements annually through the e-procurement system in the future. Earlier, the President distributed shields and certificates among companies and IT professionals who had performed exceptionally well in the field of Web 3.0 technology in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: The 8th anniversary of terrorist attack on Army Public School (APS) Peshawar was observed on Friday.

The main function of the tragic incident of APS School was held in Army Public School Peshawar on Friday. Special prayers were offered for the martyred students and teachers of Army Public School. The parents of the martyred students also laid floral wreath on the Yadgar-e-Shuhada. It was on this day (Dec 16,2014) when six terrorists stormed the Army Public School Peshawar and martyred one hundred and forty-seven innocent students and teachers of the school.

Meanwhile in a statement, Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf said the pain of Army Public School Peshawar tragedy is still fresh in the nation’s heart. He said the resilience and courage of the bereaved families and students of APS have reinforced the nation’s resolve to root out militancy in all forms and manifestations.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar held a meeting with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Management here at Finance Division on Friday.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Finance Tariq Bajwa, SAPM on Revenue Tariq Pasha, Secretary Finance, Chairman SECP Amir Khan, Akif Saeed Commissioner SECP, Ms Sadia Khan Commissioner SECP, Abdul Rehman Warraich Commissioner SECP, Mujtaba A. Lodhi Commissioner SECP and senior officers from Finance Division attended the meeting.

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar extended felicitations to the newly appointed SECP Commissioners and highlighted the role of SECP as a regulator of corporate sector, capital market, insurance and investment sectors for the betterment and progress of Pakistan’s economy.

The Finance Minister further appreciated the SECP’s work as a contributor to the financial and economic development in Pakistan by taking a number of regulatory measures in restoring and maintaining the confidence of domestic as well as foreign investors.

Extending support to SECP, the Finance Minister emphasized the SECP team to work with dedicated focus and zeal to ensure consistent, transparent and focused regulatory oversight across sectors for achieving high economic growth and social harmony in the country.

Chairman and SECP Commissioners apprised the Finance Minister of various regulatory initiatives being taken for mitigating systemic problems and building invertors’ confidence and further ensured their full support and cooperation.

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Petroleum Division Masadik Malik has said Russian Energy Minister is arriving Pakistan next month to finalize negotiations to import crude oil from Russia on discounted rates.

Talking to media here in Islamabad on Friday, he said a Pakistani delegation, after consulting three Pakistani refineries, recently visited Moscow and held productive discussions to import crude oil and finished petroleum products from Russia. He said Russia has offered two of its eight kinds of crude oils, which are also processable at Pakistani refineries.

Responding to a question regarding Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s statement that Pakistan is neither importing oil from Russia nor making any efforts for the purpose, Musadik Malik said at present we are not importing oil from Russia but we are in a process of negotiations with the Russian authorities to buy petroleum products from them.

He, however, said a detailed technical analysis of our talks with the Russian authorities will be sent to the Foreign Ministry to end confusion in this regard. The Minister of State said a framework agreement to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Azerbaijan on Government to Government basis is under consideration, which will likely be signed soon. He said the two countries are also considering establishing a Joint Global Energy Trading company to buy any distressed cargo from the international market.

Musadik Malik said we have also expressed our desire to revive Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, which will provide additional piped gas to Pakistan. He said efforts are also being made to have an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to buy LNG.

Regarding availability of gas in the country, the Minister of State said the coalition government is making all out efforts to provide additional gas to the consumers during the current and the upcoming months. He said we are bringing 20,000 tons of additional Liquefied Petroleum Gas and LPG shops are being set up in various parts of the country where piped gas is not available. He said two additional cargoes will be imported from Qatar during next two months.

Replying to a question, the Minister of State said we are managing gas shortfall and instructions have been given to maintain gas pressure during timings for cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Musadik Malik also made it clear that the government is devising a new energy policy to boost economic growth to accelerate development, create employment opportunities and reduce inflation in the country.

ISLAMABAD: Improving the electoral system, empowering local governments, and revitalizing democratic nurseries – local governments- student and trade unions, etc. are imperative to ensure the quality of representation and efficient working of legislators in parliament.

This would lead to better governance, provided the instructions and guidelines given by the Constitution of Pakistan are followed in letter and spirit at higher as well as grassroots levels.

These insights emerged during the third phase of the Grand National Dialogue on ‘Pakistan’s Political System and Governance’, held with students at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad, in collaboration with Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and NUST’s Department of Government and Public Policy, says a statement issued here on Friday.

The youth interaction session was addressed by Khalid Rahman, chairman, IPS, Dr Syed Tahir Hijazi, former vice-chancellor, Muslim Youth University, and former member (governance), Planning Commission of Pakistan, and Farzana Yaqoob, co-founder, Mantaq, and former minister of AJK, while Sana Maqbool, broadcast journalist at PTV World, moderated the session.

Khalid Rahman pointed out that political system and governance are related terms; however, it is difficult to sequence them as cause and effect because each seems to equally depend on the other. This chicken-and-egg situation depicts that work is needed to be done in every dimension of governance and legislation by adopting reformative measures and the correct mindset.

He further mentioned that, in order to bring reformative changes for better governance, it is significant to dispense clarity to four fundamental questions: Who has the power? Who makes the decisions and how? To what extent the stakeholders are taken on board? How effective is the system of accountability, i.e. reward and punishment?

Particularly significant to this is introducing reforms to the electoral process and legislative system of the country with an aim to ensure proportionate representation in parliament, competent decision-makers in the legislature, inclusivity of all stakeholders, and accountability for decisions and actions.

Pointing out the flaws of inherited policies and governance models, Tahir Hijazi stressed that in order to fast-track the delivery of services, the need of the hour is to redefine the roles of people in governance, bring proficient and skillful people as decision-makers, and hold everyone answerable through a system of accountability.

In this regard, he argued that the youth have to play a prominent role in the future and, as an asset, they must be trained and schooled in politics, electoral procedures, and decision-making. This way the future leadership of Pakistan will originate from these educated, informed, and cognizant youth.

In addition to these aspects, there is also the context of culture behind every governance success and failure, stated Farzana Yaqoob. She pointed out that the governance system is centered on chaos management since Pakistan’s inception and has not moved towards planned development and cohesion.

An important factor, as highlighted by her, within this context of culture, is the elite capture of government, even at the grassroots levels, which must be eliminated by including more people in the decision-making process. Talking about the role of youth, she also stressed that youngsters must be given exposure to political culture. Moreover, women’s representation must be improved, however, they should also be more proactive, she added.