Digital Nation Pakistan Bill 2024 was tabled in the national assembly on December 16, 2024. It aims to digitalise the nation with centralised governance, economic and social data of the citizens. It not only builds upon the already existent digital legislation in the country but also amalgamates all forms of digital data under one umbrella. The government believes that it’ll serve to integrate and coordinate the data of different departments such that all kinds of information regarding a citizen could be accessed via a single database.

Digital bill is set to bring in a digital identity system for the people of Pakistan. It is believed to eliminate the long queues at government offices whether they’re passport offices or the Higher Education Commission offices for degree attestation. This could also help close the floodgates of agriculture and health related information which need some centralised digital mode of handling after the exponential rise in population in the last three decades. Some recent policies by the provincial governments did hint towards an intent to bring in this form of legislation. Karachi is now implementing a system of biometric verification for vehicle registrations.

This bill inaugurates three new bodies namely the National Digital Commission (NDC), Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) and Strategic Oversight Committee (SOC). It has eight chapters which are further divided into thirty sections. The first few chapters define the functions, constituent members and enforcement mechanisms of these three bodies. The later chapters of the bill talk about the budget allocation and funds for these bodies. The concluding chapters elaborate on the governance and accountability of NDC, PDA and SOC.

Section 2(j) defines digital nation. The subsection clearly mandates that a digital nation accounts for the responsible use of data. Chapter two of the bill tells that the National Digital Commission is to formulate the policies to shape Pakistan into a digital society, digital economy and digital system of governance. This commission will also make sure that the federal capital, provinces and other stakeholders are well coordinated in this regard i.e. the commission will act as a bridge between the three. Section 5(a) elaborates that the commission will approve and hence implement the digital masterplan. It is noteworthy that NDC will be chaired by the Prime Minister. The bill goes on to mention how the members of the commission are appointed by the PM for a term of four years and are eligible for reappointments. Criteria for eligibility and incompetency of members is also set out.

Pakistan Digital Authority established under the digital bill is to be governed by a chairperson and two additional members, which are appointed by the Prime Minister. PDA will have all the financial and administrative powers to carry out the purposes of this bill (s.6) and digitalise the country. The primary function of the Strategic Oversight Committee is to oversee the Pakistan Digital Authority and make recommendation to the Digital Commission. Section 9(2) sets out the members for the Oversight Committee. National Digital Masterplan is the backbone of this bill. It is detailed upon in section 11. This plan talks about the strategies which are to be adopted to centralise and digitalise the ID systems. In s.11(2) the bill emphasises on the need for a consultation with all the concerned sectoral bodies while any strategies are being formulated. Subsection 5 of this section tells that this process of consultation is to be a comprehensive one.

The concerned authorities are to conduct a comprehensive annual review of the masterplan to account for any technological advancements. According to this bill, a Digital Nation Fund is also put in place to meet the expenses of the operations of the PDA, NDC and SOC. The powers and functions of Pakistan Digital Authority are well accounted for in section 8 of Digital Bill 2024. Accordingly, the digital masterplan will not just be developed, but it’ll also be implemented by the Authority. It will issue any directives it deems necessary to implement the masterplan. This however is subject to s.27 of the bill where the federal government is empowered to give policy directives to PDA. The authority is assigned tasks by the commission, and it is to eliminate any conflict between new or existing legislations.

Section 16 is about accountability of Pakistan Digital Authority. The Authority is to submit an annual report to the Commission, Oversight Committee and any concerned department within ninety days after closing of the financial year. This report shall consist of balance sheet and the audit of the income and the expenditure of the Authority. It will also include overviews of PDA’s achievements and compliance with the masterplan. To ensure transparency, Pakistan Digital Authority is obliged under law to publish its report on its website, accessible to the public.

The Senate of Pakistan gave way to this bill; however, it has been deferred by the National Assembly for further discussion. Some digital experts have pointed out that there is no law in Pakistan for data and privacy protection. Under such circumstances, they’ve questioned this bill’s applicability. There have also been instances of data breaches from NADRA’s database. This raises a question, if citizens’ data is being leaked from a national database, what strategies will be adopted to secure data of a much bigger national database? Slow internet connectivity in the country may hamper the digital services offered under the bill. The debates that followed after this bill was tabled in the assembly raised concerns over federal government legislating over informational technology which is a provincial subject. Furthermore, the high expenditure that these digital changes bring can not be ignored. An analogy can be drawn with Nigeria’s digitalisation program costing over $83 million. It is highly unlikely that a country like Pakistan with an external debt of approximately $132 billion, can afford such a modernisation program.