Director International Cooperation and Governance  •  Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Government of Pakistan

February 2018 - August 2021

• Ensure the operational integrity and effectiveness
of all integrated ICT processes, policies and operational management.

• Prepare, track and control annual operating and capital budgets to achieve the Authority’s strategic objectives.

• Develop ICT policies and procedures in consultation with other stakeholders.

• Responsible for the ICT International cooperation and governance in attracting G2G and B2B collaborations, including infrastructure, applications, resources and resource management.

• Act as a trusted advisor to the Senior Leadership
Team by building and maintaining relationships with
key stakeholders to develop a clear understanding of
Government's need and operational needs; ensure cost-effective collaborations with different governments and private ICT industry to meet current and future needs and respond with agility to changing service provision priorities.

• Assess the Government's current capability and future opportunities while balancing short-term improvements and long-term value.

• Support key projects that are at various stages and
ensure successful delivery of solutions through effective prioritization, issue management, and communication with stakeholders and the Senior Leadership Team.

• Maintain current knowledge of technology landscape and developments, particularly as it relates to ICT development globally and to manage policies as it emerges and changes in international arena.

• Ensure that existing programs/projects with different countries are functioning optimally, and necessary updates are made.

• Part of high level meetings where negotiations pertaining to ICT policies are deliberated with foreign delegates, consultants, vendors and other relevant stakeholders.

• Responsible for coordination with International and Regional Organizations for representations of Pakistan/Ministry of IT in international and regional events/fora. i.e. keeping updates on Joint Economic Commissions, Joint Ministerial Commissions, Joint Working Groups with all countries where Pakistan is engaged bilaterally and multilaterally in ICT sector.

• Responsible for securing training opportunities from national/International agencies and coordinated efficiently with different stakeholders in the country. So far 60-100 trainings have been secured and mostly through fellowships and engaging different stakeholders to be benefitted from these trainings.

• Developed Spectrum Master Plan which provides a future roadmap for Spectrum allocation as well as Spectrum related policy reviews that are anticipated to take place between 2020 and 2023. This report will assist Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoIT&T), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) in formulating the 3-year rolling Spectrum Strategy - which is a key area highlighted in the Telecommunications Policy 2015.

• Developed Digital Pakistan policy, where the Government has proposed a holistic strategy for positioning Pakistan on the global outsourcing map, participation in international forums, organizing domestic conferences, scaling software technology parks and facilitating certification ISO 27001 and CMMI programs. This policy will also serve as the foundation for the construction of a holistic digital ecosystem with advanced concepts and components for the rapid delivery of next generation digital services, applications and content. It will serve as an aggregator of demand for innovative digital services and as a supplier of data for value added services and applications.

• Processed fellowship opportunities and ensure that fellowships are fully availed. Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) trainings were secured and all availed through these three years.

• Maintained details of Post Visit reports, submitted by the nominee after participation in the event and follow-up on the actions. These reports are duly utilized for upcoming bilateral cooperation with different countries and to place Pakistan's position in ICTs internally via commissions established by different Ministries.

• Worked closely with Finance Division and concerned quarters of MoIT&T, ITU & UN departments for allocation of foreign exchange budget for ITU for each financial year.

• Worked closely with ITU & UN deptt in tracking status of payment of annual obligatory contributions of Pakistan to international/regional organizations and follow up to expedite the payments as and when required.

• Seeking necessary inputs from relevant stakeholders, external and internal, for preparation of the country position for participation and representation of Pakistan at the ITU forums and all
other bilateral and multilateral engagements in hand.
• Worked closely with internal wings and Ministry's relevant stakeholders for seeking their inputs and consolidating it with ours for final dissemination/ Pakistan's stance regarding ICT to international fora.
• Planned and coordinated with relevant stakeholders for hosting of ICT sector events in Pakistan. Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization (CTO) annual conference was organized in
2018 and ITCN Asia-2019 was organized in 2019, both were huge success and further in process of planning to be organized next year with much more huge audience from around the globe.

• In coordination with ITU department and PTA in maintaining and updating National ICT Indicators/Statistics based on the ITU Guidelines and act as resource pool for statistics in the ICT sector.

• Achievements:
Japanese ICT resource shortage was identified and developed in a program for catering/exporting Pakistani ICT graduates to Japan through my extensive assessment of the niche in Japanese ICT market, we have been able to share list of 500 ICT engineers/experts and top 100 Pakistani companies for Japanese market placement.

• Developed multiple proposals for Korean Official Development Assistance (ODA) program, where an ICT Development Consultation Program was approved. The assistance is free of cost.
This consultation program is for 5G assessment and implementation in Pakistan.

• Signing Of Memorandum of Understanding MoU Between Virtual University of Pakistan, Allied
ICT Finland AIF and Kajaani University of Applied Sciences KAMK, Finland to establish formal relation in the area of Information & Communication Technologies ICTs based education, establishment of Research, Innovation and Commercialization Centers (RlCs), student exchange programs and setting up a Centre of Excellence of KAMK in Pakistan.

• MoU between Ministry of Industry and Information Technology MIIT China and Ministry of IT and Telecom MoITT Pakistan for cooperation in Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) .

• MoU between The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) and Ministry
of IT & Telecom MoITT Pakistan for collaboration on events, research, training, policy & legal modernisation, the GSMA's Mobile for Development programme, marketing and communications to advance mobile telecommunications contribution to Digital Pakistan.

• IT MINISTER'S FORUM FOR YOUTH, INNOVATION, INDUSTRY & EASE OF DOING BUSINESS DURING 19TH EDITION OF ITCN ASIA Karachi. I was assigned with full coordination of organizing the even as collaborative partner of ITCN Asia-2019. It included inviting all the officials from relevant Ministries, to coordinate with Presidency in inviting President of Pakistan, Speeches, Statements for the President, Minister of IT, Secretary IT, Chalking out programs for interactive session in the event. Coordinating and aligning teams to establish Ministry of IT & Telecom booth for the very first time. ITCN-Asia-2021 is already announced, we will be inviting IT Ministers from around the globe for participation and promoting ICT industry of Pakistan.

• Elections for International Telecommunication Union's UN body for ICTs Council membership
during Plenipotentiary Conference.

• Worked closely with other wings/stakeholders
to achieve the goal and lobbied in developing bilateral relations to get the required votes.

• Mediator in initiating World Bank collaborations - Pakistan Digital Transformation platform Project : supporting accelerated digital transformation for growth, competitiveness and inclusion of digital economy.

• Initiated the project of Google CS First Program in Pakistan on Government's level starting from training teachers and students of schools around Pakistan, it is a free computer science curriculum that makes coding easy to teach and fun to learn. Part of the worldwide computer.

• Initiated ITU-Giga Project, Connecting the schools in Pakistan and later around the globe.