ISLAMABAD : The Inter-board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) has given go-ahead to the project to digitize the records of all the boards in order to create ease for documents attestation.

According to the IBCC, the step has been taken in order to strengthen the automation system to facilitate the attestation and equivalence process for the general public.

Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood had directed the education authorities to digitize the records after which a meeting was held between Secretary IBCC Dr Ghulam Ali Mallah and National Information Technology Board (NITB) executive director in the Federal Capital.

In a follow-up, a meeting of chairmen examining bodies was also held in which it was agreed to create a central repository of data of all the examination boards of Pakistan at the IBCC Islamabad.

The digitization process will be rolled out in phases and as a pilot phase, FBISE Islamabad, BISE Lahore, BISE Peshawar, BISE Quetta and BISE Karachi will add their data to the central repository.

In the next phase, the NITB will support the digitization of the existing manual data of all the boards in collaboration with the IBCC.

It was agreed that the National IT Board will provide e-office services to the IBCC secretariat and its regional offices to automate all internal processes. Later, the data of boards will be integrated with the attestation and equivalence e-portals of the IBCC to convert the existing hybrid system into complete automation.

The NITB will also help design software and create a Central Banks of Question Items at IBCC secretariat for all examination boards which will help to shift the assessment from rote learning to concept learning system.

KARACHI : The Sindh High Court (SHC) has once again hinted to take contempt of court action against the provincial government and ordered the relevant authorities to give promotions to lecturers across the province within 20 days.

The Sindh High Court’s judge Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar heard the petition filed by Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) against the Sindh government for not granting scale and promotions to more than 12,000 professors and lecturers.

The court issued orders to grant promotions to lecturers of Grade 17 and 18 across Sindh within 20 days and warned to take contempt of court action against provincial chief secretary and secretary colleges.
During the hearing, Secretary Colleges told the court that a policy regarding promotions and time scale was prepared by the government. The secretary sought 15 days from the court to complete paperwork for data of Grade 17 to 18 lecturers.

Justice Amjad Ali Sahito remarked that lecturers are demanding promotions, but what they would say about the standards of education. Justice Sahito continued that the standards of education will be known after witnessing the situation of Sindh colleges and their academic results.

He maintained that the standards of education have declined and lecturers were not ready to educate the people. The lecturers admitted that the education standards are dropped.

Secretary Colleges said that the government is ready to promote the lecturers but they must also perform their duties with honesty and responsibility.

Later, the court ordered the government to grant promotions to the educators within 20 days and adjourned the hearing.

It may be noted here that the educators of Sindh had filed a contempt of court plea in the SHC for not getting promotions.

ISLAMABAD, JAN 18 (DNA) – The “OICCI Recommendations for Digital Economy” report was launched on January 18th, 2021 highlighting the much-needed shift required to capture the opportunity of Digital transformation happening within and outside Pakistan through New Economy mindset.

By digitizing most, if not all, key segments of the economy could boost IT export to US$ 10 B annually, provide significant growth to GDP, attract Billions of Dollars of FDI and create hundreds of thousands new jobs within a short time. Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) membership includes some of the best-known IT MNCs, including IBM, SAP, Teradata, who also actively contributed towards the development of these Digital Economy recommendations and offered to run one Integrated technology training program for up to half a million Certified Resources in Pakistan using global courses successfully being run in many advanced countries.

These are online industry focused programs where the government needs to invest only on tracking, adoption and placement through one Program office located in the Ministry of IT. OICCI Digital Recommendations highlight the importance of shift to skill development from academic degrees to ensure productive and effective participation of Pakistani talent in New Economy that is growing much faster and attracting capital globally.

Highlighting the potential for the IT export, OICCI President Haroon Rashid commented that “whereas IT exports from Pakistan is only US$ 1 to 2 B, Philippines, with half the population of Pakistan exports IT services of about $ 30 B, India IT exports are over $ 190 B and many other Asian countries are also well ahead of Pakistan, which should be a cause of great concern to the authorities but at the same time could be a motivational factor as Pakistan has great potential to boost its IT exports with focused short and medium term strategy and its delivery by the key stakeholders, as recommended in the OICCI  Recommendations for Digital Economy report.”

The OICCI report further highlights the importance of stable and inclusive regulatory practices to ensure effective participation of global players in Platform Economy to attract FDI, make a significant positive impact on GDP growth and also connects Pakistan to global ecommerce and creative economy opportunity.

OICCI has appreciated the Special Technology Zones recently inaugurated by the PM, which hopefully will benefit the country in medium to longer term. However, for immediate gains, OICCI has recommended the need to establish a digital mechanism to provide Ease of Doing Business coverage in Public Private Partnership to bring 5-10 Million Sq Ft space quickly in utilization through Virtual Authority.

The OICCI report highlights the FDI potential by creating enabling environment for investment in Platform and High-Tech ecosystem so that Pakistan is able to attract global IT platform players and Venture Capital funding to accelerate innovation.

The OICCI Digital recommendations cover six key areas i) Connectivity, ii) Digital Financial System, iii) Export Growth and Digital Skills, iv) Platforms & E-commerce Ecosystem, v) Innovation & Regulatory Environment, and vi) Digital Governance and Citizen Services.

Other recommendations include the need to massively improve the quality and stability of connectivity by pushing fiberization drive in the country, accelerated focus on Digital Financial Services by removing existing friction, enabling the country to be integrated with global chains and improved citizen and business services, through digital governance, which can help significantly in terms of service efficiency and image of the country.

With highly improved security environment, duly recognized by independent sources, and very attractive operating cost, in terms of hard currencies, following massive devaluation of the PKR, OICCI once again emphasized the need for sustained and structured efforts for improving the global image of Pakistan as an attractive destination for FDI, including for large international technology players. =DNA

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The Pakistan Democratic Movement announced on Monday its second round of rallies against Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government across Pakistan.

The PDM, an alliance of 11 opposition parties, will hold its first rally in Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh on February 5, Maulana Fazlur Rehman told reporters after a meeting of the PDM steering committee in Islamabad.

The next rally will be held in Hyderabad on February 9, according to Fazl. It will be followed by a public gathering in Sialkot on February 13.

Opposition parties are also going to hold a demonstration outside the Election Commission of Pakistan office in Islamabad. Fazl said opposition leaders were democratic people and their demonstration outside the ECP office would be peaceful.

The foreign funding case against the PTI has been under trial for the past couple of years but the ECP has yet to announce a verdict, he said.

The PDM president accused PM Khan of seeking the biggest NRO in the foreign funding case.

“Foreign funding [case] is the biggest scandal in the country’s history and Imran Khan is the main accused in the case,” he said.

ISLAMABAD, JAN 18 (DNA) – Administration of Capital Development Authority (CDA) will complete its work on PWD Underpass at Islamabad Expressway by the end of April.

Earth work and Pipe Culverts work for east and west ramp of the said project have also been completed.

According to detail, the current administration of CDA is taking remarkable steps for the completion of various delayed projects.

Work is continued on PWD underpass at Islamabad Express Way. NIT expense of the project is Rs 515,984, 740 whereas the contract expense of the project is Rs 428,227,272. Local company MS Maqbool Calsons JV is working on the project.

MS Zeerak Loya is working on design, supervision, and consultant of the project. Work on project was initiated in September 2020 and was supposed to be completed within the time period of 07 months. 27% work on the project has been completed. Work on box culverts of the project is also underway.=DNA

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ISLAMABAD, JAN 18 (DNA) – Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan has said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) handed over 40,000 relevant documents and details of donors to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in connection with foreign funding case.

Babar Awan, while talking to a private news channel, clarified about the legal and constitutional position of the ECP by saying that the election commission has no power to ban a political party in a foreign funding case.

He termed the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) a deceased alliance and said that tomorrow’s protest would be their last sob. He said that PDM’s protest outside ECP is neither political, parliamentary nor constitutional from which they are willing to target PTI and topple the incumbent government on the basis of foreign funding allegations.

Awan said that the Supreme Court (SC) had already given a ruling in a similar scenario like the petition which is being raised by the opposition parties. The top court’s full bench had taken two major decisions regarding the matters related to the prohibited and foreign funding.

He said that the case against PTI revolves around prohibited funding, whereas, the PDM parties are facing allegations of foreign funding. He revealed that foreign funding had been grabbed for the inclusion of women and winning elections in past, whereas, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif had received funds from Al-Qaeda chief and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) from Libya.

Four political parties are facing the case of prohibited funding and interestingly, PML-N gave arguments regarding the death of the man who had funded Rs100 million to it, said Awan, adding that the political party had failed to give any proof of the donor’s death.

Nawaz Sharif had transferred Rs60 million to the bank account from the funds, he said. The third political party is Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who argued for not having any records, whereas, JUI-F leaders have also rejected to provide proofs.

Babar Awan said that ECP should publicise the facts about all four political parties. He predicted that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will not attend tomorrow’s protest of PDM. All facts have been uncovered after the Broadsheet revelations and the suspicions of Prime Minister Imran Khan have come out true.

In case of NRO, not only the looted money was lost but the assets will go out of reach from being recovered. An absconding person is propagating against the national institutions including executive authority, judiciary, armed forces and election commission, however, his statement cannot affect the national politics, said Awan.

The PM’s aide clarified that Imran Khan will not give NRO to Nawaz Sharif and PDM parties at any cost. PDM is set to hold protest outside the ECP’s office on Tuesday (tomorrow). The government had announced not to stop Pakistan Democratic Movement from protest but warned that the law will take its course, if the writ of the state was challenged. =DNA

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