In an important development, the Finance Ministry Thursday accepted the proposal of Minister for Information Technology (IT) Syed Aminul Haque and agreed to make payments to Google. “Payments can be made as per the schedule. The paid Google applications will not be closed,” Aminul Haque said. “The State Bank has been directed to delay the implementation of the policy for a month. The telecom operators have been given one-month time to implement the payment procedures,” he added. “Within a month, the IT and finance ministries and the State Bank will formulate a plan of action with mutual consultation,” he stated.

“The telecom operators had appealed to the IT ministry for assistance in the matter. A letter had been written to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to make payments and give a time frame,” he averred. Aminul Haque also expressed gratitude to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tariq Bajwa for the timely decision. It is to be noted here that Federal IT and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haque wrote a letter to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar regarding possible closure of Google applications in Pakistan in the wake of revoking of $34 million payment by the State Bank of Pakistan to the international service provider.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP