Punjab government has approved a summary to replace Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), according to reliable sources who added that the charge is likely to be given to Habibur Rehman Gilani, a senior bureaucrat, who will be appointed in accordance with the new rules.

Dr. Umar Saif was appointed as the chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board in November 2011.

In a statement shared with news source Dr Umar Saif confirmed the development.

Statement further read:

All good things must come to an end. It was a privilege to serve this country for 7 years.

I served 5 successive governments and established two institutions: PITB, which became the main reform engine for the government with over 300 projects in Punjab and other provinces, and ITU, which in just 5 years, became one of the premier technology universities of Pakistan with close to 100 PhD faculty members.

Plan9, PlanX and e-rozgaar paved new avenues of entrepreneurship, innovation and employment for the youth of Pakistan.

I am truly proud of all my team members. 1,700 fantastic professionals at PITB; 112 faculty members at ITU.

In the end, I served for as long as I could — beyond provincial boundaries and political divides — and gave it all I had. I am sure those who come in future will take these institutions to new heights. Pakistan zindabad!

Winner of Sitara-e-Imtiaz Award, Dr. Saif is also serving as the Vice Chancellor of Information Technology University. He is PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.

In April this year, Dr Umar Saif was appointed as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Chair for using Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD).

Dr Saif is also known for his work on using ICT solutions for developing-world problems. He is also the founder of Plan9, Pakistan’s largest startup incubator and is often credited as one of the main forces behind the IT ecosystem in Pakistan.

Saif’s work on grassroots technologies received the MIT Technovator Award in 2008 and he was named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2010.

News Source: Pro Pakistani

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To launch a FinTech center in Pakistan, a Memorandum of Understanding  (MoU) had been signed between Information Technology University (ITU) and Digital Financial Services Research Group (DFSRG) University of Washington (Seattle, USA).

Dr. Umar Saif who is working as the Vice Chancellor of ITU and Dr. Richard Anderson who is serving as Head DFSRG and Professor at Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington signed the agreement.

The purpose of the research center is to help Pakistan succeed in financial technology space by providing digital financial service across the country. According to the agreement signed, a research will be conducted in areas of cyber security, authentication, fraud prevention, financial education, financial management, data analytics, and customer experience studies in digital financial services.

The FinTech also aims to promote The FinTech center will also promote the Government-to-Person (G2P) and Person-to-Government (P2G) payments digitalization in Pakistan.

Dr. Richard Anderson said,

“It was the first ever collaboration in the World with Pakistan, which will be extended to the Africans and other Asian countries. Dr. Umar Saif stated that it would facilitate the Smartphone transactions and establish transparency in the system.”

Bill and Melinda Gates foundation supports the DFSRG research group. Its purpose is to help banks and mobile operators by Digital Financial Service products and providing them with best possible solutions towards the technical problems.

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