LAHORE: To make the Punjab government’s drive for digital governance through the eBiz Portal successful, monitoring committees at provincial, departmental, and district levels will be established.

This was decided during a review meeting of the eBiz portal chaired by Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman at the civil secretariat on Wednesday.

The meeting was told that the portal was enabling citizens to obtain a wide range of no objection certificates (NOCs) and permits through a fully digital, paperless approval system, eliminating delays and discretionary practices.

The meeting decided to establish the monitoring committees to ensure effective oversight and timely disposal of applications.

It was proposed that the provincial-level committee would be headed by the additional chief secretary, departmental committees by the respective administrative secretaries, while the deputy commissioners would head the committees at the district level.

The chief secretary stressed that the success of any initiative depended on teamwork, directing all departments to extend full cooperation to the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) for the successful implementation of IT reforms.

Earlier, the PITB chairman presented a detailed briefing, informing participants that 15 government departments were currently providing 204 services through the eBiz Portal. He said that work was underway to digitize services of all government departments, attached bodies, and offices. So far, he said, 12,811 applications had been received through the portal, out of which 12,414 applications had already been processed and approved through the digital system.

The secretaries of relevant departments, including the local government, health, communication and works, and tourism attended the meeting, while all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through video-link.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026