ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has planned to establish a National Digital Commission to ensure digitization of its economy and paperless governance, Pakistani state media reported on Sunday, citing State Minister for Information Technology (IT) Shaza Fatima Khawaja.
Pakistan, which faced an economic meltdown in recent months, made rigorous efforts to introduce structural reforms under a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, which ended in April and helped the South Asian country avert a sovereign default last year.
In May, Pakistan signed an agreement with McKinsey and Company for the digitalization of its tax collection system after the IMF suggested strengthening public finances, broadening the existing tax base and privatizing loss-making state enterprises as part of reforms.
Khawaja said the new commission would be headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif keeping its importance in view, the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“It will not only improve governance and tax collection efficiency but it will also smooth the inter-ministerial coordination,” she was quoted as saying.
The minister said paperless governance was “vital” to speed up the government operations and it would help remove procedural bottlenecks.
In July, Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a new $7 billion loan deal, aimed at strengthening fiscal and monetary policy as well as reforms to broaden the tax base, strengthen competition, secure a level playing field for investment, enhance human capital, and scale up social protection through increased generosity and coverage in a major welfare program.
Pakistan wants to collect 13 trillion rupees ($44 billion) in taxes — 40 percent more than the last fiscal year — according to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. The government also aims to increase the number of taxpayers from a meager 5 million.
Pakistan plans to establish National Digital Commission to digitize economy, improve governance
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Pakistan plans to establish National Digital Commission to digitize economy, improve governance
- Pakistan made rigorous efforts to introduce structural reforms under its last IMF program that ended in April
- The lender has suggested broadening the tax base and better financial management under a new $7 billion deal
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
