LAHORE – Punjab government has appointed Dr Habeeb-ur-Rehman Gillani as Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) chairman on Friday.
Rehman who serve as chairman Planning and Development has formally taken additional charge of the PITB from Dr Umar Saif.
The outgoing Dr Umar Saif took to Twitter and announced the fresh appointment with a heartfelt message.
https://twitter.com/umarsaif/status/1063338436067815424
Habeeb-ur-Rehman Gillani, was appointed as chairman of the Planning and Development Department, Punjab by the previous caretaker government.
Rehman is a grade 21 Civil Servant having more than 25 years of exposure in Pakistan’s Administrative Services (PAS) while serving in different government’s departments at critical positions.
Earlier, this week PTI’s led provincial government had removed Dr Umar Saif as the chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB).
Dr Saif – The Tech Genius
Dr Umar Saif was given the charge of PITB chairmanship in November 2011 by the government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N); he was made responsible for all public-sector information technology projects in the province.
Winner of Sitar-e-Imtiaz Award, Dr Saif is the first Pakistani to be named as one of the top 35 innovators in the world by MIT Technology Review (TR35) in 2011, and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010.
During his tenure as the PITB chairman, Dr Saif launched several initiatives aimed at improving citizen services for police, high-court, city district government, health and education, especially using smartphones.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/dr-umar-saif-explains-pitbs-support-to-kpk-in-humble-tweet/
He led the development of Punjab Innovation Policy in collaboration with Google and launched Plan-9, Pakistan’s first and largest public-sector startup incubator. He is largely credited with revamping the intermediate and matric exam system in Punjab, after a complete failure of the exam system in the previous year.
Saif is also the only Pakistani who has received the Google Faculty Research Award, Mark Weiser Award, MIT Technovator Award, and Microsoft Research Digital Inclusion Award. He was also awarded the British Council Outstanding Alumni Award in 2017.
He was named among the most influential Muslims in the world in 2014-2018.
