Pakistan's tech lobby warns that slow internet is strangling IT industry
Low-priced freelancers and call centers are at risk
Pakistan's IT Industry Association (P@SHA) – the nation's sole tech biz lobby group – has warned that government policy could lead to business closures and financial losses among its constituents, and damage the nation's IT exports.
P@SHA's main beef is with a slowing of internet access speeds, and government-imposed service outages. Pakistan went offline in May 2022 around the time of mass political protests and blackouts have since persisted – prompting services like freelance gig platform Fiverr to warn clients that hiring members from Pakistan could mean potential disruptions.
Fiverr matters in Pakistan, because the nation has a policy of encouraging freelancers to sell their services online as part of a plan to grow tech services exports. The nation even floated the idea of providing its freelance workers with a tax holiday, subsidized broadband and health insurance as a way of supporting the online labor force.
But freelancers have had a hard time of it since the August 2024 introduction of what appears to be a new national firewall. Pakistan has long tried to limit access to what it feels is inappropriate content, and the firewall was aimed at helping that effort. But it greatly slowed internet access speeds – making life hard for freelancers and other online businesses.
At the time P@SHA implored Pakistan's government that the IT industry not be "sacrificed at the altar of misplaced priorities."
The lobby group still wants that matter sorted.
Another issue was a rumored ban on VPNs – partly on religious grounds – which P@SHA chairman Sajjad Mustafa Syed this week warned would damage IT companies, call centers, and business process outsourcing organizations in Pakistan, possibly costing them major clients.
Syed called the situation an "irreparable setback" and claimed it would have a "domino effect" on other sectors of the economy. He warned it might put at risk services exports he estimated as bringing in $3.2 billion in fiscal 2024.
Thankfully the chair of Pakistan's Council of Islamic Ideology yesterday reportedly told media that fears of a VPN ban came from misinterpretation of typo in a government document.
But P@SHA still maintains that ongoing poor internet service will force Pakistan's "vibrant, young freelancers" to seek opportunities overseas. ®