Daily Times

Information Group of the Central Superior Services of Pakistan is an apropos platform to turn the entire bureaucratic fabric into a compatibly safe digital model across the occupational groups. The government needs to create more vacancies in the Information Group to be tasked with clipping the conventional wings of functional bureaucracy and staging new rudiments of a digitised environment. Pakistan’s bureaucracy is yet away from achieving full form of digitalisation; the network needs to employ ultramodern technologies to pave the road to success. Using mobile phones, emailing and social media networks constitutes below five percent of a digitised environment.

Digitally empowered bureaucracy does not merely mean the achievement of purpose at departmental levels. Since the administrative machinery of the state is assumed to ensure flow of benefits to the public, the process of digitisation ends somewhere in close vicinity of the masses.

Let me start with a few swirling questions! Can our Assistant Commissioners have a brief look on the market conditions during the busy times through CCTV cameras? It could control prices of the commodities and supplement abidance of coronavirus SOPs. Are the empowered men of Police Service of Pakistan prepared enough to always communicate and operate through a dedicated digital setup? It would elevate the level of information security, shut the windows that open towards corruption, and mitigate the crime rate. Can the Pakistan Post deliver to the addressees by taking signatures on smart devices? Even the courier service providers have induced such technology in their delivery systems. It would facilitate paperless record keeping immediately communicable to the stakeholders.

Young bureaucrats feel a huge acceptance for and an unquestionable love of communication technology. They are talented enough to expedite the process of digitisation of the country’s officialdom

Let me take you a bit forward! The Federal Board of Revenue is using such a complicated online system for collection of taxes that even a technology lover could hardly operate it. Why the authorities resting at the silky throne of Inland Revenue do not mobilise resources to make the process user-friendly and short? It would persuade numerous tax evaders to pay back to the motherland.

Foreign Service of Pakistan is the only occupational group that seems to reap the fruit of digitisation but the room for improvement is still there. Digital diplomacy has its own flavours and the public servants in the Information Group could play their dynamic role in bolstering the stage for ambassadors. Similarly, the concept of digital economy is in the limelight. Here the Information Group, collaborating with the relatable institutions, could give unconditional support to the Commerce and Trade Group. The performance of the Pakistan Customs Service and the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Service is known to all and sundry. Possibly, the digital paraphernalia could turn their black points into bright ones!

The present world is controlled by a deluge of information; the tomorrow’s world would invest in controlling the information. Information control — a phenomenon that defines what amount of information is transmissible to whom and through which media — would decide the fate of nations in terms of e-commerce, fifth generation warfare, the amount of awareness, and mental health. Digitisation of bureaucracy would ensure information control across occupational groups and information users. All of us remember the heinous gang rape incident of September 9, 2020. The police failed to arrest the criminal timely. That was the failure of information control. The authorities instinctively disclosed the arrest plan of the culprit, Abid Malhi, so he fled deliberately. He could be put behind the bars earlier if the information control had been safeguarded. The process of digitisation of bureaucracy must go the right way under scrupulous vigilance of the Information Group.

Fifth generation warfare relies on media: print, electronic, social and digital. Propaganda and misinformation are the tantalizing tools used by the actors of media wars. Our bureaucracy calls for full digitalisation; otherwise, the masses could lose their trust in public servants in response to perennial efforts of the agents of modern media warfronts.

Digitalisation could excavate the roots of red-tape system by revealing the speed of state processes at the Office Management Group that is dedicated to support the Establishment and Cabinet Division. Across-the-board digitalisation would leverage the level of efficiency, productivity and transparency in the lines of bureaucracy.

The young bureaucrats have come up with huge acceptance and unquestionable love for commutation technology. They are talented enough to expedite the process of digitisation of the country’s officialdom. The government needs to increase the number of information experts in bureaucracy to shift the entire setup to digital avenues. They could be empowered to the next level for doing bigger things except controlling print and electronic media. Information Group could be termed as the Lead Occupational Group if the officers concerned realise the dream of a fully digitised administrative format. Currently, around 250 experts are managing the huge information structure. The Federal Public Service Commission is going to select just 32 among the qualifiers of the CE-2020 to be inducted in the Information Group. We necessitate speed, accuracy, capacity and consistency to achieve our bureaucratic goals earlier during the tough time exposed by COVID-19.

The writer is a socio-economic analyst waheedmba @yahoo.com