ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication, Syed Aminul Haque, MNA, on Tuesday appreciated the performance of the Pakistan Digital Authority after a briefing given to the committee at Parliament House.
The meeting was attended by Pakistan Digital Authority Chairperson Dr Sohail Munir. MNAs Asiya Ishaq, Pleen Baloch, Ammar Leghari, Sadiq Ali Memon, Dr Mahesh Kumar, Ateeq Anwar and Ahmed Saleem Siddiqui raised questions about the authority and its role in promoting IT awareness and software development.
Dr Sohail Munir briefed the committee in detail on digital society, digital economy and digital governance, and apprised the members of their benefits for citizens and businesses. He also highlighted the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025 and underlined the importance of data for informed decision-making in policymaking.
“If data is used properly, it can increase GDP by 2 per cent. Data is a national asset that needs to be protected, and the Pakistan Digital Authority is the data regulator,” Dr Sohail Munir said.
He said artificial intelligence carried its own risks, adding that different models gave different answers to the same question. “Today, our citizens are using these AI tools and they need protection,” he said.
The chairperson said the National Digital Commission was the highest forum for national coordination, as implementation rested with the provinces and hurdles existed among various departments and inter-provincial matters regarding data and digital cooperation.
He informed the committee that, according to the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, the cost of such administrative hurdles was equal to 39 per cent of GDP. He said the objective was to remove these barriers through a new way of working, which could create a potential opportunity of $60 billion to $80 billion in five years.
Dr Sohail Munir said the National Digital Master Plan covered 15 sectors. He said the PDA, in consultation with stakeholders, was developing an integrated and shared mechanism to establish a standard digital format for governance.
MNA Asiya Ishaq appreciated the efforts of the PDA and raised a question about data protection, asking how it would be ensured that data did not leave the country.
Dr Sohail Munir said the PDA was not only preparing regulations, standards and implementation guidelines, but was also establishing Pakistan’s national data exchange layer, “Wasl”, which would ensure that data was shared securely and only with the consent of citizens and data owners.
