PM Imran Khan launches 'Digital Pakistan' campaign

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the ‘Digital Pakistan’ campaign on Thursday as a part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s digitisation programme aimed at introducing the latest technologies for public welfare.

The inauguration ceremony was held at the Prime Minister's Office in Islamabad.

Addressing the ceremony, the prime minister said digitising Pakistan is crucially important for the progress of the country's youth.

He said the world has been progressing while Pakistan has largely lagged behind.

“Digital Pakistan will be the government’s utmost priority. It will unleash the potential of the youth. Pakistan has the second biggest population of youth and it can be turned into strength through digital work,” said the premier.

“Women can contribute to this sector as well and gain jobs,” said the prime minister. 

PM Imran said that e-commerce and e-governance can change the face of an institution. 

“I am unfortunately facing a lot of resistance in the face of digitisation, and we are working all out to ensure the process is carried out,” he said.

Prime Minister Imran said that when he was elected prime minister, he said in his first speech 'Ghabrana Nahi Hai'.

"Many people panicked after that speech," he said, as the audience laughed. "Now I am telling you not to panic because we are headed in the right direction."

The prime minister said that now even the international agencies are appreciating Pakistan's fiscal and economic policies. 

Tania Aidrus narrates how she was recruited by govt to head 'Digital Pakistan'

During her speech at the inauguration of the ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative, Tania Aidrus recalled how she had been contacted by the prime minister's team to head the ambitious project.

"A person I knew told the prime minister about me and he forwarded an email to his reform team to contact me," she said. "Over the next course of months, I was in contact with Mr Jahangir Tareen and members of the federal cabinet. I even met the president before I met Prime Minister Imran and discussed the project," she said.

Tania said that the Pakistani diaspora around the world wanted to contribute to the country and serve it.

"I spent 20 years outside Pakistan," she said. "I went abroad with a very strong message about Pakistan. People say that I am politically connected to some people. That is not the case, I don't have a relationship with anyone in the government. My objective is simple--I just want Pakistan to succeed," she added.

READ MORE: How ex-Google exec Tania Aidrus plans to lead Pakistan's digital transformation

The 'Digital Pakistan' campaign was executed by the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT). The MoIT has been tasked with digitising all correspondence between the government offices.

The IT ministry had been told to complete the task within three months.

Earlier this year, senior PTI leader Jahangir Tareen had announced the government had engaged a senior former Google executive to help revamp its payment system and set into motion the digitisation initiative.

Related: Senior Google female executive to lead Pakistan’s digitisation initiative

He said the government had persuaded the Google executive, who was in Singapore, to lead the project from Pakistan, after a lot of effort and headhunting.

“She is leaving Google. In fact, she has left it and she is moving to Pakistan and will lead the digitisation initiative,” Tareen had said.