As former NADRA Chairman, Tariq Malik led one of the world’s largest multi-biometric programmes launching digital public goods and increasing global identity registration for millions of citizens. Nowadays, Tariq serves as a Technical Advisor for the World Bank advising international clients on scaling and implementing user-centric digital identity and public infrastructure frameworks, projects that have trust embedded in order for digital systems to function as designed.
During the course of our conversation, we discuss how digital public infrastructure (DPI) creates a social contract between the citizen and the state, which aims to give citizens more autonomy over their lives from seamless access to public services, financial inclusion, and rights protection; the citizen does not need permission to change their data records.
DPI has evolved and developed core boundaries that should not overreach and expose people’s data made in any bureaucratic decision. Tariq makes worthy points about government approaches to digital transformation, highlighting that governments often buy technology or launch apps without first fixing broken underlying processes, resulting in “digitising the queue” rather than true reform. This requires political will to remove unnecessary steps, establish single-agency ownership, and enact legal reform before applying technology.
Accountable governments should allow AI to make decisions but full governance should be limited and critical actions must require separate human authorisation and be open to appeals.
Tariq concludes that safe DPI is categorised by citizens being able to rely on them without becoming helpless if the technology fails, or is abused because three of the most underestimated risks are caused by interconnected systems, vendor lock-ins which prevent replacements, and threats from internal privileges i.e. someone with valid credentials abusing the system.
Tariq’s insights on user-centric Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) highlight how seamless access to public services, robust governance, and process reform build a fundamental social contract between the state and its citizens. These key themes will shape the Tech in Gov Europe conference, being held in Amsterdam in 2027.
