The digital census will be completed in March, Amin-Ul-Haque

Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications Syed Amin-Ul-Haque has said that the digital census will continue until March, after which the Election Commission will need 4 months for demarcation, so it is quite clear that general elections in the country will not be possible before October 2023.

He said this during a speech at the Internet Governance & Internet Resources Share for Pakistan event organized by Number Resource Society (NRS) at a local hotel in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The ceremony was also addressed by Mr. Lu Heng – Founder & CEO of LARUS Limited, Mr. Melvin Cheng – Director of Business Development Innovation Service Ltd, Mr. Kashif Nawaz – NRS Ambassador and Mr. Mohammed Ismail – Director of Pacific Connect Limited. Mr. Muhammad Omar Malik Member Telecom (MOITT), Mr. Jahanzeb Director Wireless and other IT industry officials and prominent personalities also attended the occasion.

The federal minister said that if former prime minister Imran Khan crosses the red line for political reasons within the scope of the constitution and law, the country and the nation will suffer.

Syed Amin-Ul-Haque said that political turmoil is increasing day by day and this political turmoil is leading the country into economic crisis. As a political party, we want stability in the country. In any case, democracy must remain permanent.
“Law and order must be closely monitored, attempts are being made to destroy law and order in Pakistan in the name of Talibanization,” he added. He said the Ministry of Energy and Energy has not contacted the Ministry of IT about the possible cyber-attack on the blackout, but the ministry has already explained that it was a technical glitch.

Amin-Ul-Haque went on to say that there is a non-binding offer in relation to Telenor, the Ministry of IT is looking into all these matters, it is our responsibility to protect the rights of the consumers and there will be no compromise on the employment of the company’s employees and the quality of service.

Furthermore, the Federal Minister of IT & Telecom on Internet governance said that an awareness event on Internet governance and Internet resource sharing is of great importance for emerging economies such as Pakistan. In my opinion, Number Resource Society (NRS) does a great job in the public interest, which is the distribution of IP addresses, and operates as a non-profit organization (NPO). It will help raise the voice of countries like Pakistan in the global and regional digital arena and internet governance forums.

We expect NRS-like organizations to play their part in the multi-stakeholder process to discuss and contribute to creating a mechanism to address Internet governance issues. NRS can also help us get the right vote from Pakistan in APNIC by supporting the Pakistan candidate so that the Pakistan internet community has their voice to get what we need in terms of internet resources like IP v4, IP v6 allocation.

IT Ministry is fully aware of the importance of internet management and so we have already established a specialized branch of internet management within the ministry.

The Department’s IG strategy builds on inclusiveness to address new and ever-evolving challenges and opportunities within the Internet governance landscape. As you may know, our country code top-level domain (.pk) is managed by a private entity that issues the sub-level domains to our company, government, academia, and non-profit organizations, among others, without any compliance with government regulations.

He said we have also made efforts to help the 5G initiative which will help support multi-stakeholder participation as well as input for internet governance at the national and international level.

He said; Alhamdulillah, it is good news for the IT industry and freelancers that the State Bank has now issued a circular eliminating the problems related to banking and account keeping of IT professionals.

There will be no more barriers to providing services. The telecom industry is currently facing the biggest problems in terms of letters of credit, which are making it difficult for them to import their equipment. As a result, plans to upgrade the system and install new towers are likely to be delayed. In this regard, we have spoken to the Finance Minister, 50% LCs are allowed and we hope that the rest of the issue will be resolved soon.

See also: Beware of NBP online verification fraud