In October 2002 the Electronic Government Directorate (EGD) was established in pursuance to a decision of the federal cabinet. Converting the former Information Technology Commission, the Government formed the EGD as a cell within the Ministry of Information Technology. The Terms of Reference of EGD as per Ministry of IT's Notification No 3-16/2001/coord dated October 19, 2002 are:

• Implementation of different projects related to the Electronic Government (E-Govt) Programme.
• Provide technical advice & guidelines for implementation of E-government projects at the Federal, Provincial and District levels;
• Plan and prepare Electronic government projects
• Provide standards for software and infrastructure in the field of Electronic Government; and
• To undertake any other assignment matter that the government may direct.

In April 2005, the “E-Government Strategy & 5 Year’ Plan document prepared by EGD was approved by the National E-Government Council (NEGC) and then later in June 2005 the same endorsed by the Federal Cabinet.
The strategy proposed for the next 5 years has the following salient features that are to be parallelized wherever possible for an accelerated implementation:

1. Basic Infrastructure – Deploy the basic infrastructure to all government agencies. This includes PCs, Intra-Ministry network, office automation software, intra-ministerial communication. To connect all government agencies to the Federal Government Data Center for inter-ministerial communications and Internet and Intranet services.
2. Common Applications – A portfolio of applications that are common to many or all Divisions has been identified, namely Internal Communication, Human Resource, Budget, Project Management, Document/File Management, Collaboration. These are to be implemented in the Ministry of IT, stabilized there and then rolled out to all other Divisions.
3. Agency-Specific Applications & e-Services for Citizens – Every Division is to identify high-impact processes for the agency and to provide services to citizens electronically. This is then to be implemented through the support of Electronic Government Directorate (EGD), however, with the ownership lying with the respective agency.
4. Standards – An EGD Framework is under development and will be made accessible for all E-Government projects so that reference architectures, standard methodology, best practices and lessons learned are leveraged at all projects.
5. Enabling Environment –
   • Federal Government – Top level leadership is to be provided by the recently notified National Electronic Government Council (NEGC) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. NEGC will meet quarterly to review the progress of the implementation of E-Government. Necessary changes in Legislation, Rules and Regulations need to be identified and made.
   • Agency – Will take on ownership and implement their E-Government program with the support of EGD. Training will be made mandatory for all employees of and above Grade BPS-5. An Awareness campaign will be started for all employees and citizens.
   • EGD – should be made an attached department of the Ministry of IT to grant it organizational and financial autonomy to remove unnecessary procedural delays.