Dr. Umar Saif failed to appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court in Lahore on Monday. Former Chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) was summoned by the NAB court in connection with an investigation related to the charges of irregularities in the Punjab IT board, as reported by local media outlet PakistanToday.
Umar Saif was accused of causing millions of rupees loss to the national treasury. 92 News reports that Dr. Umar Saif was accused of irregularities and corruption in various IT projects. He is also accused of illegally appointing people on important position based on nepotism, according to ARY News.
[Update] Dr. Umar Saif while giving his remarks on the matter, responded to TechJuice that he’s planning to visit NAB later this week, as he stated;
“I am scheduled to visit NAB later this week and that is regarding one project of Lahore High Court on a small complaint.”
Just recently, Umar tweeted something along the same lines though didn’t specifically mentioned NAB, if one does read between the line it appears that the tweet was about NAB.
او بھائ آپکی اپنی داستان گوئ اپنی جگہ مگر جن پراجیکٹس کا آپ ذکر کر رہے ہیں آن میں تو PITB نے کوئ چیز خریدی بھی نہیں۔ کوئ الزام ہی دھج کا لگا لو ۔۔۔
— Umar Saif (@umarsaif) March 30, 2019
The ex. Chairman PITB who also served as the Vice Chancellor of Lahore’s Information Technology University, was the advisor to the former Chief Minister. Dr. Umar Saif was appointed as the chairman of the PITB in 2011 by the Muslim League (N) government. However, last year in November, he was removed from his position of chairman from the Punjab Government under the supervision of Imran Khan.
Umar Saif during his tenure digitized the police department, land record system and other important departments of the provincial government. He also launched several programs with an aim to improve citizen services for police, high-court, city district government, health, and education, especially using smartphones.
He also launched Pakistan’s first public sector startup incubator, Plan9, led the development of Punjab Innovation Policy in collaboration with Google, also managed PlanX and TechHub Connect.
The story has been updated to reflect Dr. Umar Saif’s response on the matter and his tweet has also been added. (4:56 PST / 4-2-2019)
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