The advances made in Information and Communications Technologies over the last few years have made it possible to interact with the citizens in a faster and cheaper manner. Citizens are also becoming more aware and knowledgeable of their environs and their demand for information from government and expectation of services from government has increased manifold. The advent of the internet has made awareness of government information and government services accessible and available to citizens across borders.

Governments around the world are responding to the information age society and Pakistan is no exception. The key forces of change - including globalisation, the rise of knowledge economies and new technology - are transforming the relationship between government, business and society. Public attitudes and expectations of government are changing quickly. It is clear that government must change the way it relates to its citizens and customers.

What is e-government? E-Government means use of information and communications technology (ICT) in providing services to citizens. The use of ICT in delivery of public sector services is justified because the services can be provided:

• With much greater speed
• With much more efficiency, and
• In a more transparent manner

In order to ensure provision of e-services it is necessary that government organizations are provided necessary hardware, software as well as hands-on training to provide the services electronically.

The main objectives which the government would like to achieve out of the implementation of this programme are:

1. Improve services delivery to citizens
   • Reduction in the cost of service to citizen by providing government information to the public through a government portal
   • Online availability and submission of all forms of the Government of Pakistan
   • Online availability of information on jobs, tenders, official gazette notifications etc. for the convenience of the public
   • Facilitation of payment of utility bills and taxes
   • Ensure transparency in government-public interactions
2. Improve the internal efficiency of government operations of all departments of the government so that government functionaries become well versed in the use of ICT to provide service in a speedy, efficient and transparent manner
   • Improvement in productivity of government employees by automating routine functions of the government
   • Reduction in cost of operation of government in the long term by reducing time and effort spent in information search, retrieval and dissemination within the government
   • Reduction in the cycle time for responsiveness to citizens
   • Creation of synergies between various government functions through deployment of IT enabled applications and systems;
   • Enablement of quick adoption of IT in government through enhancement of skills of government employees;

When e-government programme is implemented, the public services are provided through three mediums:

1. Through internet (commonly known as online government)
2. Through Kiosks & ATMs
3. Manually, as is being done at present

The E-Government Program in Pakistan is an initiative of Ministry of Information Technology (Ministry of Science & Technology) under the National IT Policy 2000 approved by the Federal Cabinet in August 2000.

Extensive research has been undertaken in preparation of this programme. This included covering all ministries of the Federal Government with regard to their requirements over a period of one year. Each ministry was asked to form a team of 3 to 4 research persons to provide inputs. A total of 150 officers form the core resource team that provided inputs for the programme. The same team also acts as the change agents in the implementation of the programme. In addition to the input received from the resource persons, experiences of implementing the E-Government programmes of other countries have been studied so as to learn from best practices adopted. The programme has evolved over time by benefiting from the contributions of various stakeholders, from the public as well as private sectors. The broad roadmap for the programme is shown below:

The programme envisages services delivery to citizens as the ultimate aim of the government. However, in order to achieve this, a number of areas internal to the government have to be addressed. These relate to improving efficiency of operations of the government. This internal efficiency component has been divided into three areas, viz. Development of applications and databases within the various government ministries and departments and linking them through MIS, development of the basic networking infrastructure, and finally development of IT skills within the government.

The vision for implementation of electronic government has been broadly identified as follows:

• To provide services to citizens by using ICT:
  • To identify services that can be delivered electronically
  • To deliver some services online in every year
• Use of ICT in government offices so as to provide services to citizens more efficiently:
• All government ministries/divisions/departments to be networked gradually
• All major functions in every ministry/division to be automated gradually
• All official communications to be done by e-mail in a phased manner
• All government officials to be made IT literate

The approach selected for implementation is that although we will think big, we will start small and build up incrementally, keeping in view the resources available and the experiences gained. This approach has a number of advantages; viz. mistakes can be rectified sooner and with less cost, implementation skills would be built in-house, and there would be less resistance from the agencies where implementation is being done.

Electronic government programme will be spread over different years as in all countries of the world. As mentioned in the United Nations report for 2001 on E-Commerce and Development, e-government is still in its infancy all over the world. No role model is available. The Ministry of Information Technology has evolved a strategy for preparation and implementation of e-government projects. Every year a few projects falling in the below mentioned categories will be implemented so that the entire programme is executed in a systematic method and not in a lopsided manner.

1. Providing services through internet (through the GoP web portal, www.pakistan.gov.pk)
2. Provision of services through Kiosks and ATMs
3. IT Skills enablement of government functionaries
4. Networking of government organizations
5. Comprehensive automation of government organizations to make them less-paper entities which will immediately improve the quality of services that will be provided manually (as at present) or through internet and Kiosks (as is being planned)
6. Providing services to citizens through collaboration with governments of provinces and AJ

The first two activities are directly aimed at improving the efficiency of services that are delivered by the government to its citizens. Improving IT skills of government functionaries is the foundation stone for implementation of electronic services delivery. Similarly the networking of government organizations is a prerequisite for electronic communications between them, which is essential for the delivery of services electronically. The fifth area identified above is the most difficult one to implement, even in the most advanced countries, and hence they will be implemented in a phased manner. The last field of activity is very important because most of the services are being provided at provincial and local levels. All projects of this nature will be implemented in collaboration with IT organization of the four provinces and AJK.