Pakistan has miles to go before fully embracing technology as a prized cornerstone of policymaking. No qualms about that. And while most of the ruling elite try to stay as far away from the digital world as possible, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif decided to take the wind out of his cabinet’s sails with his tech-savviness on Monday. Finding fault with the dashboard built to monitor flood relief assistance, his very point-of-factedly-made rebukes, especially those with regard to real-time updates have been making rounds on social media. For one, it was a pleasant surprise to see a sitting premier at least try to remain ahead of the curve instead of relying on whatever information was fed by his deputies. As for Mr Sharif, his determination to be a quick study has time and again helped him break the ice with foreign diplomats. May it be the Punjab Transparency and Rights to Information Act 2013, which streamlined a more open and accountable provision of public services through technological solutions or the revolutionary Citizens’ Contact Center, his smart management is known to all and sundry. While his razor-sharp focus and a preference for the actual content of any project over cutting ribbons and posing for the camera calls for appreciation, those standing red-faced on the stage and scrambling for explanations were his own IT ministry speaks volumes about our skewed priorities. Mr Sharif may have been the odd one out but Pakistan is still quite comfortable living in the stone age. Such adamant is our complacency that a platform designed with a goal to apprise locals and international donors about the situation on the ground needs human workers to fill in details. In the twenty-second year of the New Age, we could not come up with an automated data collection system. You have a long way to go, Mr Prime Minister because you might have stopped one project by one ministry in its tracks but what about the shambolic Digital Pakistan Policy 2017 and an official slashing of a $200 million worth of ICT development project by Asian Development Bank and failing startup culture? Devil surely lies in details. *