Daily Times

President Dr Arif Alvi has said that people to people contacts and religious tourism provide excellent platforms to further expand bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The president made these remarks while talking to a delegation of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks on Wednesday.

The president said that Pakistan is home to the Gandhara Buddhist heritage and proud custodian of some of the most sacred relics of Buddha, offering great potential for promoting religious tourism from Sri Lanka to Pakistan. He asked the delegation to encourage the monks and people of Sri Lanka to visit the Buddhist religious sites in Pakistan as it has far greater number of Buddhist artefacts than any other country in the world.

President Alvi said that Pakistan considers Sri Lanka as a special partner and friend and wants to further improve bilateral cooperation with it. The president expressed the hope that the delegation would enlighten their followers about Pakistan’s Buddhist heritage and also encourage them to undertake religious tours to Pakistan. The Sri Lankan delegation appreciated the measures taken by Pakistani government for the renovation and preservation of Buddhist heritage sites.

Meanwhile, President Alvi has asked the relevant stakeholders to implement the digitalisation process of the parliament by January 2023.

He stated that a cyber-efficient parliament would prove to be a milestone in improving government efficiency, transparency and responsiveness. He made these remarks while chairing a meeting on the President’s Initiative for Cyber Efficient Parliament (PICEP), at Parliament House on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, Minister for Information Technology & Telecom (MoIT&T) Syed Amin-ul-Haque, Secretary MoIT&T Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui and secretaries of the Senate and National Assembly.

The Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom briefed the meeting about the implementation plan of the cyber-efficient parliament. The ministry informed that PC-I of the project had been prepared which would be sent to the competent forum, after completing the necessary formalities, for allocation of funds for financial year 2021-2022.

The president stressed the need to meet the timelines with regard to implementation of the project. He advised all stakeholders to work in unison for early completion of this important project. He lauded the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecom for timely designing the PC-I of the Digital Parliament. Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjarani and Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser appreciated the initiative of the president and said that the project once fully implemented would manifold enhance the efficiency of the parliament.

They also assured their fullest support in early completion of the project. They also directed their respective secretariats to work out a plan for capacity enhancement of members in terms of information technology and gadgetry.