ISLAMABAD, July 17: The federal government has decided to stop circulation of notices, agenda of meetings, directives and summaries of the cabinet to all the ministers and state ministers on papers (hard copies) for security reasons, Dawn has learnt.

When contacted, a senior official in the Cabinet Division said the decision was basically aimed at introducing “e- government concept”.

In an official communication, the Cabinet Division has informed all the ministers, state ministers, adviser to the prime minister, federal secretaries and additional secretaries in charge of all ministries and divisions that all future correspondence would now take place through e-mail.

It said the federal cabinet was given a detailed briefing on the e-government plan on June 29.

As a first step, it was decided to stop circulation of notices and agendas of meetings through the decade-old practice of paper circulation. Hence, the notices for the next cabinet meeting, to be held in the second part of July, would be circulated through e-mail.

All the ministries have been directed to create the e-mail accounts/addresses of their ministers, ministers of state, secretaries and advisor to the prime minister and provide it to the Cabinet Division under a prescribed pro forma. The Planning Commission has also been asked to provide the e-mail address of the deputy chairman planning commission.

The ministries and divisions have also been advised to ensure that e-mail addresses provided to the Cabinet Division were secure and only authorized persons had access to these accounts. The directive has been issued by the joint secretary cabinet, M. Tayyab Khan.

The sources said the cabinet members had been complaining about leakage of their summaries, in some cases, even before consideration of the cabinet.

The cabinet has already directed all the ministries and divisions to establish senior level focal points to ensure implementation of the e-government plan immediately and has made training in IT mandatory for all government employees of grade five and above. This has been part of a five-year implementation plan for e-government.

All the ministries and divisions have also been asked to accord top priority to the introduction of e-government strategy and 5-year plan and employ a tracking mechanism to ensure that the decisions and the action items were implemented within the specified timeframe.