Amid growing concerns from Pakistan’s business community, the country’s internet service providers on Wednesday claimed that the Pakistani government’s intensified efforts to monitor internet traffic have led to a significant nationwide slowdown in services, the Dawn has reported.
Over the past few weeks, internet speeds in Pakistan have reportedly dropped by 30 to 40 per cent.
In its statement, the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WISPAP) has reportedly said that the Pakistani government’s decision to increase security and surveillance has had the unintended consequence of severely crippling the country’s digital economy.
Which sectors are the worst hit?
Citing WISPAP, the Dawn report said that the impact of the slowdown in internet speeds has been particularly devastating for Pakistan’s e-commerce professionals, call centres, those managing electronics-related businesses, and the online workforce.
Describing these sectors as “the backbone” of Pakistan’s “burgeoning digital economy”, WISPAP said that they are now struggling to maintain operations, adding that the slowdown was “threatening their very survival”.
How has the common Pakistani been impacted?
According to Dawn, a number of users are even speculating that the disruptions have been caused by a firewall installed by the Pakistani government to monitor and control user activity. However, the report added, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has denied that the issue was caused by a firewall.
What could this mean for Pakistan?
According to the report, the situation has become so dire that many businesses situated in Pakistan are considering relocating their operations to countries where internet services remain stable.
Describing the situation as “very discouraging” for WISPAP’s customers, the association’s Chairman, Shahzad Arshad, reportedly said that many of them were leaving the smaller internet service providers (ISPs) because they could no longer “tolerate the poor service quality”.
Arshad warned that if the situation continues, Pakistan will witness an “exodus of businesses” from the country.
According to a prominent Pakistani business paper, the country’s digital economy is measured through two sectors — the information and communications technology (ICT) industry and the digital and information technology (IT) industry.
In 2022, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication had estimated that the contribution of the digital economy to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) would continue to grow. From 2019 to 2025, the ICT core industry’s contribution to GDP was estimated to increase from 1.2 to 8.15 per cent, while digital and IT’s contribution would increase from 2.7 to 13 per cent.
Pakistan’s GDP stood at $338.37 billion in 2023, according to official data from the World Bank.
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (2023-24), the country’s IT industry currently generates around $2.6 billion in annual exports.
What is Pakistan’s business community saying?
The WISPAP chairman’s concerns have also been echoed by numerous Pakistani industry leaders, who have reportedly warned that the current situation is not only damaging the country’s reputation as a hub for digital entrepreneurship, but also endangering its economic stability.
Speaking to Dawn, one Karachi-based e-commerce entrepreneur said that his sector was seeing businesses planning to shift their operations abroad because the internet in Pakistan “is simply no longer reliable”.
Stating that Pakistani businesses cannot compete on a global scale without fast and secure internet, the entrepreneur said, “… This is pushing us to the brink.”
The entrepreneur, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also noted that the panic within Pakistan’s business community was growing as the government’s measures showed no sign of abating.
While the Pakistani entrepreneur appeared to acknowledge the importance of enhancing security, he stressed that the question that needed to be answered was at what cost to the nation’s digital economy would such a goal be achieved.
“There is an urgent need for a solution that balances security concerns with the need for robust and reliable internet access,” he said.
Is Pakistan becoming a surveillance state?
The authorisation came in the wake of allegations that Pakistani intelligence agencies were snooping on the country’s citizens, particularly politicians and judges.
Another Dawn article from earlier in July reported that on the orders of the PTA, Pakistan’s telecom companies had been operating a mass surveillance system, which was intercepting the data and records of telecom customers, without any legal procedures or regulatory mechanism authorising such actions.
This information came to light in an Islamabad High Court order in a case dealing with the surveillance of Pakistanis, whose private phone conversations were recorded and then released on social media.
First Published: Aug 15 2024 | 1:47 PM IST