With the world diverting to a more smart way of communicating and conducting affairs, Pakistan’s Prime Minister has taken it upon himself to bring this change in Pakistan and keep up with today’s dynamic world.
Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the ‘Digital Pakistan’ campaign on Thursday as a part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s digitisation programme aimed at introducing the latest technologies for public welfare.
On International Anti-Corruption Day in Islamabad, PM Imran Khan launched ‘Report Corruption Mobile App’. He said that the initiative of the Anti-Corruption Establishment is appreciable and the officials should appraise the people regarding the new application.
While addressing the people Khan communicated to them the importance of a transparent system by citing examples of countries like Nigeria and Congo and that of Switzerland who may be rich in resources but its people face poverty as a result of rampant corruption, as opposed to that Switzerland has lack of resources but the people are prosperous due to a healthy and transparent system in place.
He said, “A country cannot prosper where the rulers are involved in corrupt practices.” he further added, “Chinese economy is considered the fastest growing economy only because the Chinese people, as well as the government, arose against corrupt elements and about 400 people of minister-level were jailed on corruption charges,”.
Pressing on the important mater of issuing a call-to-action, the leader of Pakistan said, “Unfortunately, people shower flowers on looters and corrupt people. The whole nation will have to take part in the government’s ongoing ‘jihad’ against corruption by exposing corrupt elements in society,” said Imran Khan.
This application was introduced by the Anti-Corruption Establishment which was greatly appreciated by the prime minister.
Khan’s vision is to transfer all the money to deserving public welfare departments like health, education and more from the pockets of corrupt leaders.
The mobile application can be used to report corruption cases falling in the jurisdiction of Punjab with the facility of uploading complaints, evidence in the form of videos/ images/ documents.
As transparency is key in this project, the app allows the complainant to view the progress of their application. This, in turn, will not only help reduce corruption but will also help monitor the progress of the concerned officials.
The Prime Minister put a team in place earlier of developing the app and they brought in Tania Aidrus, an executive in Google, to head the ambitious project.
Earlier this year, senior PTI leader Jahangir Tareen had announced the government had engaged a senior former Google executive to help revamp its payment system and set into motion the digitisation initiative. With her expertise, experience, and vision, Pakistan will continue on with its journey in becoming a technologically advanced country; including effective governance through cutting-edge technology.
“I spent 20 years outside Pakistan,” she said. “I went abroad with a very strong message about Pakistan. People say that I am politically connected to some people. That is not the case, I don’t have a relationship with anyone in the government. My objective is simple–I just want Pakistan to succeed,” she added.
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said the launch of the mobile application by Punjab government was a remarkable achievement against corruption which would enable the people to report corruption through their mobile phones.
The ‘Digital Pakistan’ campaign was executed by the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT). The MoIT has been tasked with digitising all correspondence between the government offices.
