The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) has held a stakeholder consultation with the Sindh IT Company (SITC) and the Science and Information Technology Department of the Government of Sindh as part of the ongoing development of the National Digital Masterplan (NDMP), according to a post on its LinkedIn page. PDA was represented by Chief of Staff Sophia Hasnain, Chief Digital Public Infrastructure Officer Dr Sahibzada Ali Mahmud, and Strategy Project Manager Kashif Ahmad, who met their Sindh counterparts. The authority said the national digital transformation will work best when national direction and provincial ownership move forward together. It thanked SITC and the department for their constructive engagement and for their insights on the development of the masterplan.
According to PDA, the discussion focused on increasing provincial participation in shaping Pakistan’s national digital transformation agenda and aligning provincial priorities with the NDMP. It also looked for opportunities for coordinated action in digital governance, public services, digital infrastructure, and sectoral transformation. PDA described the consultation as an example of its whole-of-government approach, which builds on provincial experience, respects institutional mandates, and turns national digital ambitions into practical priorities that suit local conditions. The post does not list specific Sindh proposals or decisions from the meeting, so what the province asked for in the masterplan, or what it agreed to, has not been made public.
The NDMP is the federal government’s framework for coordinating digital transformation across the economy. A meeting co-chaired by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema and Prime Minister’s Office Adviser Dr Tauqeer Shah in May was told that the plan covers sectors including education, health, agriculture, taxation, social protection, energy, logistics, and public service delivery, according to the Press Information Department. It envisions investment in digital infrastructure, nationwide connectivity, digital skills, innovation ecosystems, and modern governance. At that meeting, the economic affairs minister said he hoped consultations with all provinces would be completed before the federal budget, so that priorities, readiness for implementation, and resource allocation could be aligned, as reported by Dawn and Profit.
The emphasis on provinces follows direction from the top. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a review meeting in July 2025 that meaningful consultation with all stakeholders should be a permanent feature of the digital transformation plan, as reported by Dawn, and chief secretaries of the provinces attended that meeting. In September, ARY News reported that the Cheema-chaired PDA meeting also discussed the consultations held with provincial IT departments and other stakeholders on the masterplan. Sindh has its own digital programmes, including the E-Portal that was recently handed over to SITC for operation and maintenance, so alignment with the national plan matters for how services built by the province connect with national systems. PDA has not announced when the NDMP will be finalised, whether it will be released publicly, or how the provinces will be involved in funding and delivering its projects.
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