An email message sent by government officials at the Ministry of IT, Government of Pakistan shared the new draft IT Policy 2010 for comments and feedback. With a very tight deadline for online comments only, the ministry claimed that this draft has been developed out of broad based consultations. However, the fact of the matter is that none of the relevant stakeholders were aware of any such process being conducted by the government.
The Pakistan national IT policy, a massive 45 page draft is accessible online.
Keeping in view this new development and responding to the urgent need, Bytes for All (B4A)and Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA) are jointly organising a much-needed broad based National Stakeholders’ Consultation on November 13 2010 in Karachi.
Unfortunately most of the relevant stakeholders are either unaware or unprepared to respond to this policy process and the B4A-P@SHA Roundtable may well be the only meaningful exercise or opportunity contributing to this document in the name of consultations.
The proposed consultation on 13th November 2010 is meant to gather all important stakeholders at a national level in a bid to develop comprehensive comments and recommendations on this draft IT Policy document.
Along with many other things, the primary purpose of this consultation will remain to see how best we can embed the Internet Rights agenda and also the focused efforts on open, egalitarian Internet for a more democratic Pakistan.
Visit the on-going discussion on the Pakistan ICT Policy.
For more information, please contact:
Bytes for All, Pakistan: shahzad@bytesforall.net
P@SHA: president@pasha.org.pk