The government plans to present a bill in the National Assembly today to establish a digital identity for citizens, which aims to centralize social, economic and governance data.
The agenda for Monday’s session released by the National Assembly Secretariat said that Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja will present the Digital Nation Pakistan Bill 2024.
The agenda said that the legislation will “help transform Pakistan into a digital nation, enabling a digital society, digital economy and digital governance.”
The federal cabinet approved the bill in June to digitize the economy and promote e-governance.
According to sources, the government plans to set up two new bodies, including the National Digital Commission (NDC) headed by the prime minister, which will include the four chief ministers and heads of institutions like the State Bank, FBR and PTA, while the second body will be the Pakistan Digital Authority, which will be headed by leading industry experts.
A key proposal of the new system is a digital identity for every citizen. It will include data on an individual’s health, assets and other social indicators.
According to officials, the bill aims to improve access to departments that manage identity cards, land records, birth certificates and health records.
Government departments will also be targeted in the digitization efforts, which will be given target-based plans to improve services.
Digital expert Habibullah Khan told Dawn that “the main purpose of this bill is to support the objective of the Global Digital Compact and enable the building of Pakistan’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)”.
Habibullah Khan—who is also the CEO of Penumbra, a digital design studio—described DPI as “a stack of technologies” that includes three key digital systems, including digital ID, universal payment interface, and data exchange.
Habibullah Khan, who has been involved in DPI research, said the stack enables countries to “accelerate digitization” and accelerate development initiatives for decades.
Asked why new institutions are needed to implement the program when several similar institutions are already working on it, Habibullah Khan said that a digital transformation of this scale, which involves multiple institutions, departments, and bodies, cannot be done by a single ministry.
“11 of the top 15 countries in the UN e-Governance Index have a ‘supra-ministerial body’ for national digital transformation, hence the need for these institutions,” he said.
He told Dawn that the NDC will guide the digital agenda while the Digital Authority will implement the plan to establish the DPI.
The NDC will approve the plan and ensure executive support at all levels for building these important digital systems comprising the DPI.
He said that both the supra-bodies will lead the planning process while the implementation will be done by the existing institutions.
For example, he said that the digital ID will still remain under the jurisdiction of NADRA but it will be upgraded and linked to the Data Exchange Layer and Universal Payment Interface.
Similarly, NADRA, FBR, SECP, State Bank, electricity distribution companies, banks, etc. will feed data to the stack.
One of the proposals is to accelerate the formalization of the economy through digital wallets, which, according to sources, will help people get loans from banks and become part of government schemes.
Habibullah Khan said the measures would ensure equal access and inclusion of the poor, minorities and women and create a strong competitive white economy.
The move would “expand access to education and healthcare at the fastest pace” and connect people to economic opportunities, while also boosting digital payments.
The plan also envisions a ‘Civic Lab’ to “encourage youth to harness their technological capabilities.”
The lab will support AI-based startups active in healthcare, educational technology, agricultural technology and climate change, sources said.
