Technical faults in the government’s e-Office system disrupted work at Pakistan’s finance ministry this week, slowing operations and halting the flow of official files. The outage comes days before an expected visit by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its economic review.
According to the sources, the Ministry of Finance formally wrote to the National Information Technology Board (NITB) on February 19, drawing attention to serious system failures that affected daily operations. The letter said repeated technical issues had slowed processing and brought file movement to a halt.
Repeated Glitches
Officials said the problem is not new. Similar glitches are faced every few weeks, with no permanent solution implemented so far. Employees complained of login failures, stalled workflows and frequent system freezes, making it difficult to complete even basic tasks.
The e-Office system was introduced as part of a push for paperless governance on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. While the initiative aimed to improve efficiency and transparency, recurring technical issues continue to frustrate users across federal departments.
NITB Response and Follow-Up
In response, officials at the National Information Technology Board confirmed the disruption and said work was underway to stabilize the system. They said the platform was under pressure due to increased usage as more government departments were brought on board, adding that infrastructure improvements were in progress, including a disaster recovery setup and stronger security arrangements.
NITB later said the system had been brought back online and announced plans to conduct a stress test over the weekend to evaluate its capacity and performance. Even so, officials at the finance ministry remain wary, pointing out that such technical breakdowns often reappear at sensitive times, including ahead of major engagements like the forthcoming review by IMF.
