The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has issued Terms of Reference for hiring a consulting firm to conduct a comprehensive institutional review of 11 digital bodies operating under or alongside the ministry, in an exercise designed to identify overlapping mandates, close institutional gaps, and build a governance framework capable of supporting Pakistan’s digital economy over the next decade.
The review will cover the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the National Information Technology Board, Ignite National Technology Fund, the Pakistan Software Export Board, the National Database and Registration Authority, the Universal Service Fund, the National Telecommunication Corporation, the Special Technology Zones Authority, the Electronic Certification Accreditation Council, the Telecom Foundation, and provincial information technology boards. The breadth of the list reflects a recognition at the ministry level that Pakistan’s digital governance architecture has grown organically over many years without a systematic review of how these institutions relate to each other, where their responsibilities overlap, and where structural gaps exist that have prevented coordinated delivery of the government’s digital agenda.
The consulting firm will examine current mandates and statutory functions, assess alignment between the ministry and its affiliated organisations, identify duplication of responsibilities, and develop coordination mechanisms between federal and provincial bodies involved in digital governance. It will also benchmark Pakistan’s institutional framework against leading global digital governance models and prepare recommendations for a future organisational structure covering digital public services, telecommunications, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, cloud adoption, and emerging technologies. Proposed amendments to the Rules of Business 1973 and an implementation roadmap covering institutional reforms, staffing, budgeting, and inter-agency coordination will form part of the final deliverable.
The exercise is being conducted under the ministry’s World Bank-assisted Digital Economy Enhancement Project and is expected to begin in October 2026, running for six months. It builds on an earlier decision covered in this publication to restructure the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication itself, announced in June 2026, with the current exercise extending that mandate to the full ecosystem of digital institutions that operate under and alongside the ministry. Together the two exercises represent the most systematic review of Pakistan’s digital governance architecture since many of these institutions were originally established.
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