ISLAMABAD: Keeping in view the country’s increasing vulnerability to breach of cyber security, members of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Thursday asked the government to take immediate steps to ensure cyber security for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and its missions abroad.

MoFA had been assured by the Finance Ministry that an amount of Rs80 million would be provided for improving cyber security. However, the amount was yet to be released, an additional secretary told the meeting.

The committee members in one voice asked for urgent release of the amount, acknowledging that breach of cyber security was no longer an ‘em­­e­­rging’ threat but something which already ‘existed’ in the digital era.

Missions in Saudi Arabia

In order to facilitate and resolve problems faced by Pakistanis residing in Saudi Arabia, two Pakistan missions would be set up in Madina and Dammam by the ministry, the meeting was informed.

“The ministry made a commitment worth Rs120m to launch two new Pakistan missions in the Saudi cities. Necessary measures to process the missions are being taken care of,” representatives of the ministry said.

The meeting, chaired by Nuzhat Sadiq, observed that there was a growing need for more Pakistani missions to improve public diplomacy and discourse abroad.

The session also discussed progress made for release of 601 Pakistanis who were languishing in Muscat jails under different charges.

The FO officials informed the committee that all legal and diplomatic assistance was being provided to them. Ms Sadiq directed the FO to submit a final compliance report on the matter after the prisoners were released.

Ministry’s budget

The committee reviewed the budget allocated to the ministry for the current fiscal year. The body was informed that Rs1.8bn was allocated to eight units of the ministry, out of which around Rs86m had already been utilised. “We have used almost 50 per cent of the allocated budget so far,” the officials said.

For foreign missions, they said, Rs12bn had been earmarked, out of which Rs4.5bn had been utilised so far.

Whereas, Rs2.29bn was allocated for other expenses and the ministry consumed around Rs694m of the total, they added.

To a query from the chairperson, the officials said the ministry was making consistent efforts to recover the missing Haj pilgrim, Abdul Ghafoor. They said the Saudi authorities were extending full support in this regard.

Among others, the meeting was attended by Senators Daud Khan Achakzai, Haji Momin Khan Afridi, Retired Colonel Syed Tahir Husain Mashhadi, Ayesha Raza Farooq, Karim Ahmed Khawaja and Farhatullah Babar and other senior officials.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2017