Daily Times

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin-ul-Haque on Wednesday said that the digital census would continue till March, after which the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would need four months for delimitations which makes it clear that general elections in the country were not possible before October 2023.

He stated this while addressing the Internet Governance and Internet Resources Share for Pakistan event organised by Number Resource Society (NRS) in Islamabad. The minister said that if the former prime minister Imran Khan crossed the red line for his political gains transcending the scope of the constitution and law then the country and the nation would suffer. Amin-Ul-Haque said that the political unrest was increasing with each passing day and this political unrest was leading the country to an economic crisis. “As a political party, we want stability in the country. In any case, democracy should remain permanent.” “Law and order should be closely monitored, attempts are being made to destroy law and order in Pakistan in the name of Talibanisation,” he added. He said that the Ministry of Energy & Power did not contact the Ministry of IT regarding any possible cyberattack on the power blackout, but the ministry had already explained that it was a technical fault.

Haque further said there was a non-binding offer regarding Telenor, the Ministry of IT was looking into all these matters, it was its responsibility to protect the rights of the consumers and there would be no compromise on the employment of the company’s employees and the quality of service. Talking about internet governance, the minister said the awareness event on Internet Governance and Internet Resources Share was of great importance for developing economies like Pakistan.

He added that as per his understanding, Number Resource Society (NRS) was doing great work in the public interest that was the distribution of IP addresses, working as a Non-Profit Organization (NPO). “It will help raise the voice of countries like Pakistan in the global and regional digital arena as well as in the internet governance forums.” He said that the ministry expected NRS-like organisations to play their role in the multi-stakeholder process to discuss and contribute towards making a mechanism to address internet governance issues. “NRS can also help us to get right voice from Pakistan in APNIC by supporting Pakistani candidate so that the Pakistan internet community has their voice to get what we need in terms of internet resources like IP v4, IP v6 allocation.”

“IT Ministry is fully cognizant of the significance of internet governance and to this effect, we have already established a specialized vertical on Internet Governance at the Ministry.” Ministry’s IG Strategy builds upon inclusiveness to address new and continuously evolving challenges and opportunities within the Internet Governance landscape. As you may know, our country code top level domain (.pk) is managed by a private entity that is issuing the sub-level domains to our business, government, academia and non-profit, among others, without any governmental regulatory compliance.