Essential to incorporate IT into Parliament: Dr. Arif Alvi

Chairing a meeting on the President’s Initiative for Cyber-Efficient Parliament, President Dr. Arif Alvi, highlighted the need to digitize both houses of the Parliament to ensure efficient secretariat and committee management as well as decision making.

Dr. Arif Alvi said, “It is essential to incorporate Information Technology (IT) into both Houses of Parliament that would enhance its efficiency and would help establish effective monitoring and control system over the legislative business.”

The Punjab Information and Technology Board (PITB) has been continuously working to digitize the governmental offices in Punjab to ensure timely provision of services to the public for a long time now. They have digitized all kinds of provincial departmental tasks from excise to anti-narcotics.

The other provinces have also started following suit after seeing the efficiency that e-governance brings as well as leaving lesser avenues for corruption. It seems that this has finally caught the eye of the President who aims to employ the digitization efforts towards the Parliament as well.

The digitization of the Parliament is necessary especially in times like these. Since COVID-19 has stopped the functioning of most governmental offices forcing them to shift online, it is necessary that the Parliament be digitized as well. This will not only make the Parliament more efficient but will also help curb the spread of the virus.