Grey trafficking countered successfully

 Trafficking countered 

 The government claimed on Friday that grey trafficking is successfully being countered as the number of white traffic increased from 400 million to 1.6 billion minutes. "With effective policy intervention, the menace of grey trafficking has successfully been countered as the white traffic crossed the mark of 1.6 billion minutes from less than 400 million minutes", said Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman while addressing the Youth Parliament's special session on state of E-Governance and IT in Pakistan. The minister said that government is committed to provide connectivity to un-served and under-served areas of the country by December 2018. Anusha Rehman said that the ministry brought 3G /4G in the country and got international recognition for most transparent spectrum auction. "We have witnessed a phenomenal increase in ratio of broadband penetration which is currently surpassing 24% from less than 3% within shortest span of two years", she said. The minister said that Pakistan's free-lancers in the field of IT have been ranked number 4 in the world. Pakistan is aggressively pursuing an accelerated digitalisation programme to spur socio-economic growth in the country, she added. She said that recently launched ICT for Girls Programme was aimed at passing on the benefits of ICT to the less privileged section of society. Anusha said that under the programme girls from marginalized sections are being trained on coding and computing with the partnership of Microsoft to increase their employability potential. Besides, under Universal Service Fund the government is spending billions of rupees to provide telecom and broadband facilities to un-served and under-served areas of the country, she added. Different programmes have been designed and multiple projects have been undertaken to achieve the goals set forth by the federal government. Under the USF program, broadband programme was initiated to provide broadband internet services in the urban areas of 2nd and 3rd tier cities. USF has provided internet connectivity to 449,896 subscribers in 406 towns and established 1328 educational broadband centers and 369 community broadband centers. Rural Telephony & e-Services (RTeS) programme has been the main programme of USF whereby both last mile and backhaul components of telecommunication infrastructure have been provisioned in un-served areas. The programme has transformed from provision of basic telephony and data services to mobile broadband internet and telephony (3G/4G) services. Basic telephony and data services have so far been provided to 4,297 mauzas. The minister said on one hand the government is providing connectivity to the people of un-served /under-served areas while on the other working on the affordability and accessibility of these services. So that people of these marginalized areas could get equal benefits of technological advancement in the country." To enhance financial and digital inclusion, government is considering a pilot project to distribute 30000 Smartphones with Rs 250 balance per month among the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) beneficiaries along with 3G services in the un-served and under-served areas of Balochistan and FATA. She said objective of the program is to give access to the basic E-Services to these women living in rural areas. She said that with strenuous efforts of years, the ministry brought a comprehensive piece of legislation in the shape of cyber crime Act. "We have given 21 new rights to the people of Pakistan with this new legislation.