While the internet and connectivity stand as key concerns in the global cyberspace narrative, the lagging exertions undertaken by the dominant Pakistani enterprises on shaping local telecommunication had since long been daunting. Effective internet governance stands essential in any thriving society, attributable to its ability to advance sustainable human development. The forever dismissive attitude towards connectivity in Pakistan has long thwarted its capacity to shape a conversant society, encouraging free thinking and free flow of discourse.
Recently, however, the deteriorating circumstances of Pakistan’s communication sector appear ameliorated, since the task of expanding networks across all marginalized areas has been handed to the Universal Service Fund (USF), an initiative of the Ministry of Information Technology (MoITT), under the leadership and direction of its minister, Syed Amin-ul-Haque.
The mission of the USF is to ‘spread the benefits of the telecom revolution to all corners of Pakistan. It ‘promotes the development of telecommunication services in un-served and under-served areas throughout the length and breadth of the country.’ In the brief span of just 4 years, its mandate of disseminating the benefits of the telecom revolution in all corners of Pakistan has resulted in extraordinary feats. USF has contracted and concluded more than 80 projects, worth approximately Rs 80 billion. Out of its targeted population of 40 million, 20 million people in small towns and remote districts have already been given access to high-speed mobile broadband.
Such accomplishments, amongst other significant factors, are reliant primarily on the organizational mechanics and operations of the USF department, introduced due to the forward-thinking of the IT minister himself, along with the progressive board led by the Secretary IT and the USF team. Under such stellar leadership, USF has deviated its path from the more conventional and generic running methods of other governmental offices.
Taking a leaf from the MoITT’s and USF’s books, work cultures can be changed with strict merit-based hiring, along with fostering a healthy work environment through flexible scheduling, applying managerial best practices, offering a creative incentive, market-competitive salaries, deadline adherence, meeting set goals and agendas and training sessions across the employee chain. Acceptance of new ideas and relinquishing the current primaeval practices is the only way to ensure a Pakistan that stands the test of time.
Among its central workplace tenets are merit, excellence and discipline, which are possibly the most unique practices expected from a bureaucratic office in this country. For its merit-based hiring, USF’s priority is the aptitude of its candidates, who possess sufficient theoretical and practical erudition. With core values such as diversity, integrity, growth and innovation, those in authority at the MoITT and USF ensure that only the most highly qualified, proficient, and effective candidates are chosen for the job. In return, the Minister of IT and the USF CEO also strive to make this as alluring as possible for this governmental office to hire and retain such qualified personnel, by pushing towards the best employee practices prevalent in the private sector across the globe.
Market competitive salaries, a tremendous work/life balance, provided through flexible work hours and free weekends, and innumerable employee benefits, such as sufficient leave allowance and provision of adequate medical benefits across the employee chain from top to bottom, make for attractive features inviting competent persons to seek job opportunities with the USF. It is the smooth sailing of this department, which allows it to accomplish the tasks it has mandated and to bring to all corners of the country the connectivity it has long been divested of.
Acclamation is also owed to the legal department of the MoITT, working tirelessly towards updating and amending the legal side of cyberspace, connectivity, and telecommunication in Pakistan with the same zeal and swiftness as the infrastructural side. Through relentless efforts and hard work. the Member legal MoITT, Mr Babur Sohail, who is heading the law department, has tapped into the best legal practices and international standards along with his legal team at MoITT, actively taking measures to ensure that the statutes such as Data Protection Laws, Social Media Rules, Computer Emergency Response Team Rules and many others rules in the pipeline that oversee and govern the functioning of communication within the country are at par with the most superlative international standards.
Amongst most of the bureaucratic offices in Pakistan, such proficient work cultures remain nothing but mythical standards, unachievable due to stagnant, archaic, and abortive workplace dogmas which fail in extricating from the employees the best they have to offer. Undeserving and uninspired workers in all mainstream government offices have left this country in shambles. It is high time that these nepotistic workplaces revolutionize their codes and adopt better initiatives, instead of underworking or overworking their staff.
Taking a leaf from the MoITT’s and USF’s books, work cultures can be changed with strict merit-based hiring, along with fostering a healthy work environment through flexible scheduling, applying managerial best practices, offering a creative incentive, market-competitive salaries, deadline adherence, meeting set goals and agendas and training sessions across the employee chain. Acceptance of new ideas and relinquishing the current primaeval practices is the only way to ensure a Pakistan that stands the test of time.
