Dr. Yar Muhammad Mughal who is currently working as Assistant Professor of Informatics at University of Tartu in Estonia- Europe (http://www.ut.ee/~muhammad). Dr Yar Muhammad is a pioneer and founding member of Pakistan Estonia Association (PEA). He extended all his help to develop Pakistan.
Dr. Yar Muhammad Mughal highly appreciated efforts of the Federal Government of Pakistan and Provincial Government of Sindh initiative and kick off the Digital Pakistan and Sindh ICT Board respectively. He said that Digital Pakistan could get benefits from Estonian technological advancement because Estonia is one of the world’s most digitally advanced societies. In 2005, Estonia became the first state to hold elections over the Internet. In 2014, Estonia became the first state to provide e-residency. In Estonia, 99% of the services are digitalized and 98% Estonians have ID-cards and 46.7%, Estonians use internet voting.
e-Solutions that have led to Estonia becoming one of the world’s most developed digital societies. Estonia developed e-Solutions such as: e-Governance in 1997, e-Tax in 2000, Digital ID in 2002, i-Voting in 2005, Public safety in 2007, Block-chain in 2008, e-Health in 2008 and e-Residency in 2014.
In 2016, first academic collaboration was developed by Dr. Yar Muhammad Mughal between Pakistan and Estonia. From Pakistan, two universities (National University of Science and Technology NUST Islamabad & Mehran University Hyderabad) collaborated with University of Tartu, Estonia. The project namely called Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility, was funded by Europe Union (EU). Reported by many Pakistani Newspapers.
On Tuesday Dec 17, 2019, Dr. Yar Muhammad Mughal had very pleasant meeting with Mr. Hannes Astok Deputy Director of Strategy & Development of e-Governance Academy, Estonia (Europe).
The e-Governance Academy is ready to cooperate and collaborate and extended his help to implement e-Governance. As Dr. Yar Muhammad Mughal said that we could have three below possibilities to kick off collaboration between both countries:
- e-Governance Academy of Estonia is ready to host delegation from Pakistan, to have high profile meetings, arrange workshops and seminars and discuss possible e-Governance model, e-Solutions and to help out to be implemented.
- Delegation of expert from Estonia could go to Pakistan and conduct initial meetings, workshops and seminars over there as well.
- Could have Skype call/meeting to give presentation and have an initial discussion.
Sindh Law Department has finalised bill for the formation of Sindh Information and Communication Technology Board (SICTB) with the focus on automation of Sindh government activities (https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/504000-sindh-finalises-ict-board-bill). In this connection, Dr. Yar Muhammad Mughal had a face to face meeting with I.T Minister Govt. of Sindh, Mr. Muhammad Taimur Talpur and D.G I.T Mr. Muhammad Yousuf to discuss the possible cooperation and collaboration.
Dr. Yar Muhammad Mughal said that he is ready to contribute in Digital Pakistan and Sindh ICT Board to utilize his expertise and develop connection as well as create a bridge between both countries for strong collaboration and cooperation and help them to achieve long term goals in Technology as well as education sector.
Dr. Yar Muhammad said that he could arrange high profile meetings and information sessions between the delegations learn from existing e-solutions and how could new established Digital Pakistan and Sindh ICT Board get benefit from proved existing Estonian e-solutions.
