Pakistan Plans Single Digital ID for Access to Public Services
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that Pakistan's national digitalisation programme is being designed to give citizens access to multiple public services through a single digital identity. He outlined the plan while chairing a review meeting in Islamabad on the implementation of an integrated national digital policy framework.
Under the proposed system, people would eventually be able to use one digital identity for document verification, banking, healthcare, financial transfers and other government-linked facilities. The initiative is intended to reduce the need for citizens to navigate separate databases and procedures maintained by different public institutions.
The prime minister directed officials to prioritise sectors with the greatest public impact, including health, agriculture, utilities, housing and small and medium-sized enterprises. The government wants the first phase to improve access to essential services before extending the framework across additional areas of the economy and public administration.
Officials briefed the meeting that the housing component would assign a central identification number to both public and privately owned properties. A separate integrated mechanism for small and medium-sized businesses would establish a unique legal identity for enterprises, which the government believes could improve formalisation, productivity and access to official services.
Shehbaz also ordered immediate steps to connect federal institutions with Sky 47, the newly established central data centre inaugurated last week. The facility has a capacity of 8.5 megawatts and is expected to serve as a shared infrastructure platform for government departments rather than allowing each institution to establish an independent data centre.
According to the government's assessment, concentrating institutional data within a national public-sector facility could create a common operational hub while reducing duplication and unnecessary expenditure. The Pakistan Digital Authority is expected to guide the transformation of government services and help align administrative systems with the broader national digital strategy.
The National Digital Commission, established under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025, will play a central role in coordinating the programme. The commission is headed by the prime minister and includes all provincial chief ministers, giving provincial governments a formal role in shaping and implementing the framework. Shehbaz directed that a commission meeting be convened soon so that provinces and other stakeholders could be taken into confidence.
The government says legal, administrative and institutional preparations are being completed with input from international specialists and organisations. Work is also progressing in 14 additional priority sectors alongside agriculture, food, health, energy, housing and small businesses, with officials expecting the reforms to improve institutional decision-making, transparency and economic performance.
The single-ID initiative forms part of a wider digital governance campaign. The prime minister recently launched an artificial intelligence-based platform intended to replace paper-driven processes at the Prime Minister's Office, while Pakistan became a founding member of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation earlier this month. The government has also announced plans to invest $1 billion in the domestic artificial intelligence sector by 2030.
The next stage will involve convening the National Digital Commission, opening Sky 47's facilities to federal bodies and completing the regulatory arrangements required for a phased rollout. The programme's success will depend on coordination among federal and provincial institutions and their ability to integrate existing systems into a reliable national platform that citizens can use easily.