Islamabad:As part of the Digital Pakistan initiative, all emergency response numbers will be merged with the 911 helpline across the country, said IT and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haque on Monday.
“Our ministry has finalised the roadmap for the launch of a unified emergency helpline to be called PEHEL-911,” he told the Academic Performance Recognition ceremony at the Mohammad Ali Jinnah University here.
The minister also said Parliament would become paperless by January next year with all calling attention notices, adjourned motions, attendances, voting and other businesses to be done online with the help of modern technology.
He said children and youth should be taught artificial intelligence and digital technology for their development in the fast-changing world.
“Technology is changing with every passing day and we have to equip our youth with modern technology as they are the country’s asset, so steps are being taken to connect them with the digital world,” he said.
The minister said the government was planning to connect youth with the digital world for self-employment as IT involved multi-billion dollars businesses. He said the government, IT industry and academia should be on the same page for the purpose.
The minister called for the introduction of IT-related courses for youth to get better jobs abroad. He said his ministry was going to ensure improved connectivity with 4G.
The minister said Rs 49 billion funds were being spent for improved connectivity in the country. “We are serving people across the country without any discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion or political affiliations. Pakistan’s IT industry was rapidly progressing and our IT exports are also increasing,” he said.
The minister said the exports of IT have increased to $2.8 billion in 2020-21 from $1.4 from 2019-20. He said that the IT ministry has set a target of 70 per cent exports growth i.e. $3.5 billion for 2022-23.
He said the number of IT-related projects had increased and the majority of them would be completed soon. The minister said better policies of the government had increased the number of phone subscribers to around 189 million from 160 million in the last three years, while the tally of broadband subscribers had gone up from 70 million to 100 million.
