ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: The minister for science and technology, Dr Ataur Rehman, has asked all the ministries to update their websites in order to facilitate delivery of services to the people.

This was stated by the federal minister for education, science and technology, Prof (Dr) Ataur Rehman, on Tuesday while briefing ministers and government officials on the web portal, “pakistan.gov”.

“The first ever information and services portal of the government, will facilitate delivery of services to the citizens,” he added.

Dr Ata said the website would strengthen the relationship between people and the state and increase efficiency of the government departments.

“By enhancing transparency in transactions, the website will be instrumental in checking corruption in the country,” the minister added.

Federal ministers for interior, commerce, law and parliamentary affairs, culture and tourism, labour and manpower, and secretaries of almost all the divisions or their representatives attended the briefing.

“While this portal can facilitate the government and citizens in many ways, incorrect, incomplete or outdated information will be of no use to the public,” Prof Ata said.

The minister emphasized on the need of an integrated effort to make the portal “really useful”.

All the ministries/divisions have also been requested to waive off registration fee of most of the forms and accept downloaded forms. The government will evolve a mechanism to implement this proposal.

The officials were informed that the portal will be “the face of the government to the world”. Links to about 35 websites of different divisions have been integrated with the portal. These sites contain useful information for all potential users, both domestic and international.

The information includes organizational details, rules and procedures, contact persons and their e-mail addresses, forms that can be downloaded, information about jobs, tenders, and official gazette, notifications and data.

The citizens will be able to access the individual sites or get required services from the central portal to which all the websites are linked.

Four additional sites have also being developed in consultation with different government agencies. The sites are educational institution locator, Hajj and Umrah, and a website on Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.