On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal formally inaugurated the Governance Innovation Lab at the Ministry of Science and Technology on Friday to ensure good governance and transparency in the country.
During the ceremony, the minister remarked, “The lab’s key objectives will be to enhance transparency, improve service delivery and resolve problems faced by government departments. The Lab will focus on connecting knowledge with action and act as an agent of change within the public sector.
The minister stated, citing a Transparency International report, that during the PMLN’s tenure? (2013-2018), Pakistan was ranked the lowest in its history on the Corruption Perception Index, whereas, during the PTI’s tenure (2018-2021), Pakistan reached its lowest ever ranking in corruption.
Unfortunately, the entire nation was misled by the previous government through its rhetoric, while the reality is starkly different, the federal minister said in response to the Daily Mail’s recent apology for fabricating a story about Premier Shehbaz Sharif at the request of the PTI government.
Moreover, the minister also stated, Our commitment is not merely based on slogans or deception, but rather to take practical steps to eliminate corruption, as developments from 2013-18 demonstrate.
The Minister announced that the Ministry of Planning would set up a hotline and appoint an Ombudsman to deal with citizen and whistleblower complaints about corruption in PSDP projects.
He added that the Governance Innovation Lab would help provide innovative solutions to improve transparency and structural solutions to the corruption threat. There is a dire need to give confidence to government officials so they can take decisions based on merit while ensuring transparency without fear of persecution.
In his opening remarks highlighting the critical features of the Governance Innovation Lab, Dr Adnan Rafiq, a Member of Governance, Innovation, and Reforms at the Planning Commission, informed the participants that the Ministry of Planning took this step to produce a collaborative community of multi-disciplinary experts to drive public sector reforms.
The GIL will focus on key governance challenges which include taxation reforms, increasing exports, enhancing the ease of doing business, justice system reforms, effective coordination between federal, provincial and local governments and to improve the impact of PSDP while reducing leakages, he said while briefing the participants.