2020-2021: NA body okays Rs 32.7 billion budgetary proposals

The National Assembly panel on Wednesday gave approval to Rs32.7 billion budgetary proposals for the year 2020-2021 under the Public Sector Development Projects (PSDP) of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication met with MNA Ali Khan Jadoon in the chair, which was also informed that more than 50 million cyber attacks were carried on the NTC's national data center during the last one year, but the data remains safe.

Taimur Khan, joint secretary Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication briefed the panel about the PSDP for 2020-2021.

During the last year, he said that Rs32.9 billion were demanded from the government for development projects but Rs12 billion were allocated against it, while more than Rs34 billion were demanded for the next financial year.

Brigadier Khalid Butt from the Special Communication Organization (SCO) gave a detailed presentation to the committee on the ongoing and new projects, and stated that the Next Generation Mobile Services has an ongoing scheme for which 50 percent budget has been allocated, and Rs1 billion have been demanded for the next financial year for the project.

He said that 820 kilometres of optical fiber from Khunjerab to Rawalpindi has been added under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), adding that in the six months, 25 percent revenue of the project was deposited to the government.

Under Phase-II, Brigadier Khalid said that optical fiber will also be added from Rawalpindi to the CPEC route, adding that this is an important project in terms of security of around 9,600km.

He said that Rs230.5 million have been sought to implement The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and extend the system of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) to the Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

After detailed discussion/deliberations, the committee recommended to approve all the PSDPs and directed the Ministry of Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs to provide the required funds to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (IT&T) in the better interest of the country.

The committee deferred the agenda item with regard to details on all the vacant positions in the Ministry of IT and T and its attached departments; promotion/seniority due of the incumbents; reason of pending matters on the promotions and determination/ identification of the persons responsible of it, till its next meeting.