KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said Thursday that access to information and e-suite services, including healthcare, e-finance, e-agriculture, and e-education, will enable rural and remote communities of the country to compete better to support the economic development of the country.

This he said while speaking at a contract signing ceremony between USF and PTCL for laying Optic Fiber Cable (OFC) in Dadu, Jamshoro, Badin, Hyderabad, Larkana and Kambar-Shahdadkot districts here at a local hotel. The program organized by Ministry of IT and Telecommunication was attended by Federal Minister IT and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haq, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Additional Secretary IT Mohsin Mushtaq, President and Group CEO PTCL and Ufone Hatem Bamatra and consul general of different countries.

Mr Shah said that it was his pleasure to be among the distinguished guests at the contract signing of Optic Fiber Cable Projects (OFC). The CM said that there was a time when technological advancements and economic conditions in some parts of our country were at a crucial stage, which hampered daily lives of millions of Pakistanis.

He added that just to overcome all those challenges, and in line with the vision of digital Pakistan, the federal IT Ministry through Universal Service Fund (USF) had been running diverse projects which were playing a huge role in the socio-economic development of our people.

As digitalization has become a priority for businesses and communities, the ministry of IT and T through USF aims to connect all the citizens of Pakistan, the CM said and added under its next generation Optic Fiber (NG-OF) Network and Services program, the USF had contracted over 16,000 km of Optic Fiber Cable (OFC) to benefit 31.5 million Pakistanis.

Shah said that by providing access to information and e-suite services, such as healthcare, e-finance, e-agriculture and e-education, Ministry of IT and Telecommunication was enabling the rural and remote communities of the country to not only compete better, but also to support the economic development to bring a positive impact on the national GDP while contributing to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Ministry of IT and T under the leadership of its Minister Syed Aminul Haq was awarding contracts for three more projects. He added that these projects would achieve the objective of providing access and connectivity to the rural and remote communities of Sindh as well as provide a digital highway for seamless broadband coverage to the people living in Dadu, Jamshoro, Badin, Hyderabad, Larkana and Kambar and ShahdadKot districts.

This project launched for over Rs5 billion would benefit a population of approximately 4.2 million people living across 207 unserved Union Councils (UCs) and Towns, Shah said and added these projects had also been designed to connect 686 educational institutions, 212 health facilities, 276 government offices and 1,367 telecom towers within 5 KM radius of the node. Mr Shah said that the project would also improve the lives of people, create job opportunities for them, empower women as well as young girls along with many other benefits.

Earlier, the Federal Minister for IT highlighted achievements of his ministry and vowed to increase the export of IT from $2.5 billion to $3 billion. On the occasion, the CEO of PTCL Mr Hatem Bamatraf and the CEO of USF Harris Mahmood signed the contract.

Imran Khan’s remarks: Commenting on the recent remarks of Imran Khan, Syed Murad Ali Shah quoted a speech of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in which he had said “there is no power on earth that can undo Pakistan”. He said the words of the father of the nation were enough for him [former PM]. Had he [Imran Khan] had gone to a good school, he would have learnt Quaid’s thoughts about Pakistan, the CM said and added he should go to the school now but not on our expenses.