عبدالقدوس

Cover Story — SPIDER August 2007

Virtual government

E-government needs to truly represent the people

Reba Shahid

From paying taxes online to keeping track of ones judicial affairs,
filing online applications and forms to e-voting, the potential for
e-government services to radically change the way citizens interact
with government has grown in congruence with the evolution of
technology. E-government is considered to be a means for achieving
good governance, by increasing the access of citizens and businesses
to public services in an easy and cost effective manner. The
Electronic Government Directorate (EGD), Ministry of Information
Technology defines it as the, 'usage of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) to support processes within the government as well
as for the delivery of services to its consumers, including other
organisations, citizens as well as businesses.'

While the above may bode well on paper, the practical and successful
application of the same is a multi-faceted issue. The government of
Pakistan initiated its e-government project in 2002 after establishing
EGD in October 2002. According to the E-Government Strategy and 5 year
plan for the Federal Government, published on the Electronic
Government Directorate website, "The Ministry of IT has utilised 3.68
billion rupees in the IT sector out of which 282 million rupees have
been utilised for e-government projects".

Before delving into the goals and outcomes of the e-government
initiative, how the inhabitants in the land of pure stand to benefit
from this apparent merger of officialdom with shiny new technology,
needs to be examined. The dismally low literacy rate in the country
(estimated to be 48 per cent, including those 'literates' who can only
sign their names on paper), casts a foreboding shadow of doubt on the
IT literacy levels in the country. True, the reach of the World Wide
Web is not restricted by traditional boundaries, but in Pakistan the
majority of the population resides in the rural areas. These are the
regions where the literacy levels (IT and otherwise) leave the
denizens lacking the basic skills which are required to operate a
computer and efficiently use the online facilities of the e-government
initiative. Issues such as these, restrict accessibility and utility
of the e-government initiatives to the limited IT literate urban
population and raise a question mark on the feasibility and potential
of the much publicised e-government initiative of Pakistan for the
welfare of the general Pakistani citizens.

On the other hand, endeavours such as e-ticketing, online tax filing
facilities, the presence of the largest and the technologically
advanced National Database of the Pakistani Citizens, in the form of
National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) offering a wide
array of e-services to Pakistani citizens and similar e-government
projects are indeed commendable. However, if the concerned authorities
are truly inclined towards expanding circle of beneficiaries of its
various e-government projects, then the social and cultural barriers
hampering the effective use of technology need to be addressed.
Pakistan's e-government initiative has provisions for training and
upgrading the IT skills of the government officials. These have to be
matched with an IT literacy drive, not only for the urban dwellers but
for the rural areas as well; preceded with a basic literacy drive for
the latter.

An important aspect of the e-government initiative is to build a
better link between the citizens and the administration. It entails
using electronic means for all interaction between citizens and
government agencies, including availing services from the government,
understanding the status of work in progress and accessing the results
of the process. This does not mean that e-government will be a magical
antidote to corruption, red tape, bureaucratic inefficiency and
ineffectiveness, nepotism, lack of accountability and transparency.
However, despite the fairly impressive online presence of the local
governments of various cities, replete with e-mail addresses of
different officials, the lack of interaction by these government
functionaries, cast a shadow of doubt on the viability and the motive
of publishing their electronic contacts. Emailed queries by Spider,
inviting a response on the e-government endeavours from the various
government functionaries turned out to a self-defeating exercise. Out
of all the e-mails sent at the 84 official addresses published on the
city district government portals of Karachi, Lahore, Vehari,
Faisalabad and Multan, only 5 reached the destination, while the
remaining bounced back to the sender's address, as the intended user's
e-mail account was over quota. Irrespective, if the debate whether
this can be taken as a positive indicator of the acceptance of the
e-governance among the masses or not, repeated attempts at
establishing contact with the officials achieved the same results
while the remaining five e-mails have failed to elicit a response. If
the above can be taken as an example of the usage of e-mail
communication envisaged at the official level, then one is left
wondering at the logic of allocating and publishing official e-mail
addresses at the government portals.

All in all, similar to other online ventures, e-government does not
subscribe to the notion of 'Build it and they will come'. In other
words, a developing nation like Pakistan needs to do the necessary
groundwork and invest not just in the technical infrastructure
required for e-government, but adequate investment in the skills of
the users is equally imperative.

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