The cabinet has approved the formation of a 17-member task force on IT and telecommunications comprising prominent members of Pakistan's tech sector, it emerged on Thursday.

A notification to this effect, issued by the Ministry of IT on Nov 5, stated that the Prime Minister's Task Force on IT and Telecom was granted approval by the federal cabinet in an Oct 25 meeting.

The chairman of the committee is Information Technology and Telecommunication Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Notable members of the task force include P@SHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) President and Nest I/O chief Jehan Ara, former Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Attaur Rehman, Teamup NIC Co-Founder Zohair Khaliq, Telenor Microfinance Bank Chief Executive Officer Shahid Mustafa, and others.

Correction: An earlier version of this story named Shahid Mustafa as the CEO of Tameer Bank. In 2017, after being acquired by Telenor, Tameer Bank was rebranded as the Telenor Microfinance Bank. The error is regretted.