The administration of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has appointed former Google executive Tania Aidrus as the convener of the Digital Pakistan committee, a project she previously headed during the rule of ousted premier Imran Khan from July 2020 to December 2019.
The committee will be headed by the federal state minister for IT, with the secretary of the IT ministry also included in the team. It will compile recommendations for Pakistan’s ambitious digitization project, which aims to implement modern technologies and innovations across various sectors, including government processes, to ensure transparency and ease of use.
Aidrus brings a wealth of experience to the role. She spent more than half her life outside Pakistan, studying at the world’s best schools and working at the forefront of the global tech industry. She holds an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management and a BSc from Brandeis University. Prior to her appointment as a Google executive, she co-founded a mobile health diagnosis company called ClickDiagnostics, which connected rural patients in emerging markets to doctors around the world.
Aidrus was inducted into the federal cabinet led by ex-PM Khan in 2019 as special assistant to the prime minister. However, she faced an unceremonious exit from the PM’s House in July 2022 due to her Canadian nationality, which she mentioned in her resignation and a post on X. Some reports also suggested that another reason for her departure was the establishment of a non-governmental organization (NGO), which sparked a debate on conflict of interest.
