PM Shehbaz Orders Ministries to Share Data on National Digital Platform
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — WEB DESK: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed all federal ministries to take timely measures to digitise relevant information and make it available through Pakistan’s national digital platform, as the government seeks to modernise public services and improve coordination among institutions.
The directives were issued during a high-level meeting in Islamabad to review progress on the implementation of the Digital Nation Pakistan programme across federal ministries.
The prime minister said a central national data centre would play an important role in improving the delivery of government services and making public facilities more accessible to citizens.
He emphasised that integrating departmental performance information and relevant records into a centralised digital system could help modernise government operations.
Shehbaz said the programme’s central objective was to provide efficient, accessible and convenient services to citizens through better use of technology and government data.
He highlighted the importance of information sharing between institutions, pointing to the government’s targeted fuel subsidy scheme as an example of how coordinated data systems had supported implementation.
The prime minister also said digitising ministry records and performance data could help reduce corruption, administrative inefficiency and institutional mismanagement.
During the meeting, officials discussed progress towards developing universal medical records in cooperation with provincial governments.
Shehbaz praised efforts by the Ministry of National Health Services to advance the initiative and welcomed the introduction of QR codes to support verification of medicine quality across Pakistan.
Officials informed the meeting that the Ministry of Information Technology was working with other federal ministries to accelerate sector-specific digitisation.
Priority areas include healthcare, agriculture and other essential public services, with the aim of improving access to information and reducing administrative difficulties for citizens.
The meeting also reviewed efforts by the information technology and law ministries to bring relevant national legislation together through a centralised digital system.
The initiative is intended to improve access to legal information and assist future legislative work.
Federal ministries presented updates on their public services, institutional performance and preparations for sharing relevant data with the central data centre.
The prime minister instructed ministries to coordinate with provincial governments and relevant institutions to complete assigned digitisation tasks within their prescribed timelines.
Senior federal ministers, including Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal and IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja, attended the meeting.
The directives represent another step in the government’s wider digital transformation programme, although the meeting did not publicly establish a single completion date for the entire national platform.
