Digitalization and information technology

Although Pakistan is not considered as technologically advanced as the developed world, it has all the
necessary ingredients for a digital revolution, such as widespread mobile, internet and social media
connectivity as well as a huge digitally literate and urban youth . Infact Pakistan has already altered in the
early phases of digital transformation, as manifested in its booming e-commerce sector and growing start-
up market.

Introduction

Pakistan is ready for digital revolution because of its widespread telecommunication and internet
penetration and an emerging tech-oriented urban youth. Pakistan’s growing e-commerce and digitization
of public services indicates that it has already entered in the early phases of digital revolution. Pakistan
needs to accelerate this digital transformation through policy changes and infrastructural interventions
to tap the full potential of a modern digital economy.

Is Pakistan ready for a digital revolution?

What is digital revolution:

With the advent of modern technology and internet, traditional processes such as businesses, education,
banking etc are being shifted online through digital devices such as mobile phones and laptops. this is
what constitutes a digital revolution.

Three principle indicators of digital transformation

1. Provision of online services

2. Telecommunication connectivity
3. Human capacity/digital literacy

Is Pakistan ready for a digital revolution?

1. Pakistan has a vast digital base that makes it ripe for a digital revolution.
 173.2 million mobile connections in Pakistan, which is equivalent to 77.7% of the total
population.
 3G/4G penetration rate in the country stands at 35.21% which means more than 74
million subscribers are connected.
 46 million social media users in Pakistan
2. Pakistan has a huge youth bulge that is fast moving towards online services: 63% (130 million) pf
Pakistan’s population comprises of youth.
3. Pakistan has a significant urban population with digital facilities demanding greater online
services: 37.3% (77.5 million) of Pakistan’s population lives in urban centers.

How is Pakistan already in the early phases of digital revolution?

1. Pakistan was ranked as the fourth largest freelancing country in the world in 2019-Gig-Economy-
Index.
 IT exports have increased 70% during the last three years.
 2. The traditional-businesses are fast moving online which is pushing the growth of E-Commerce
sector at an exponential pace, bringing global attention
 Examples: Amazon’s partnership with Pakis tan.
 Acquisition of Daraz.pk platform by thee-commerce giant Alibaba in 2018.
 Pakistan’s start-up ecosystem is maturing at a fast pace, according to a report by
McKinsey(2020).
 COVID-19 has already accelerated Pakistan’s digital journey by pushing both government
private sector to move their services online in the wake of pandemic.

What are the steps already taken to accelerate Digital Revolution?

1. The federal and provincial governments, as well as various businesses, have taken numerous steps
to accelerate the digital adaptation in different areas of life. These include:
 The Digital Pakistan Policy (2019)
Digital ambition designed to work towards a digitally progressive and inclusive Pakistan
 Pakistan Single Window (PSW)
Eliminates bottlenecks in Management of imports,exports and transit trade.
 Automation and Monitorization Portal for Ehsas Program
 Pakistan Citizen Portal App
It links the government organizations with the general public at both provincial and
federal levels to address public concerns and grievances.
 Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA)
Set up in 2020 to set up special technology zones (STZs) across Pakistan.
 Digitization Of Kamyab Jawan Programme
Loans can be availed for setting up Small Businesses or Expansion of existing businesses.
 e-rozgaar scheme
Designed to provide training to budding freelancers and enhance their professional
capabilities by creating employment opportunities for the youth.
 NITB and PITB
Provide IT services and infrastructure to the government and local and international
businesses.
 Computerization of Police Stations(CMS)
It provides an interface to complaints to check the status of their complaint and a
clashboard for police officials to monitor activity.
 Roshan Digital Accounts
Provides diaspora to have access to banking services in Pakistan remotely.
 Raast Digital-Payment System
Pakistan’s first instant payment system that enables end-to-end digital payments among
individuals,businesses and government entities.
 Dispensation of justice through E-court system
 Inauguration of Zindagi App for preventing the youth from the curse of drugs.
 Introduction of Tax Asaan App to simplify tax payment procedures.
 Stepping towards women empowerment through Hamdard Programme
 Use of e-commerce, fintech and e-governance to improve the ailing economy.
Why is digital revolution important in the 21st century and what significance does it hold for Pakistan?

1. The world is going through the Fourth Industrial Revolution and ICT is the key lever of economic
development in modern world.
2. Developments in the digital sector can help SMEs that have 40% share in GDP reach more
consumers and achieve growth.
Example Nishat hotel –employment-tax revenue.
3. Developments in the digital sector will help unleash the previously untapped potential of
country’s youth.
4. It can help in upward social mobility of dependent factions of society such as women and
minorities.
 Can direct avail services
 Less effluent people can get help
 Social mobility

How will CPEC act as a catalyst for Pakistan’s Digital Revolution?

1. CPEC envisages 820 km of fiber-optic cable in Northern Region and 6299 km of underwater cable
to connect Pakistan to China ,Africa and the Arab World.
2. China plans to build a global digital highway “Digital Silk Road” that’s runs through Pakistan.

What are the current obstacles in the path of digitization?

1. Digital divide
Only 35% of the population having internet access.
2. Internet population, as compared to global average of 60%
3. There is often resistance to technological adoption, on part of decision –makers, due to its
potential of disrupting the status quo, and bringing transparency, visibility and accountability.
4. Deteriorating economic conditions, particularly, in terms of growing unemployment and
poverty.
5. Lack of robust policy making owing to no political will.
6. Cyber warfare as the biggest threat to digital domains of Pakistan.
7. Pakistan lacks behind in Research and Development due to fragile education system.
 Global innovation index: Pakistan ranked 107th
 Technology readiness index: Pakistan 110th in the world (WEF).

How can Pakistan catalyze the rate of its digital revolution in order to match with that of global pace?

1. Access and connectivity:

Access to internet should be consider a fundamental right and must be pervaded in society.
2. Digital infrastructure:
There is a need to be build a “Pakistan Stack” that allows government , business and start-ups to
utilize digital infrastructure to solve Pakistan’s problem towards paperless and cashless service
delivery.
3. E- government:
There is a need to digitize intra-government processes as well as citizen and business interaction
with government services.
 4. Digital skill and training:
There is a need to build human capacity by rapidly imparting emerging tech skills in youth.
5. Innovation and entrepreneurship:
It is pertinent to make it easier for investors to come in and for start-ups to operate and grow.
6. Cyber security and data protection:
Requisite legislation as well as systems need to be built for cyber security and data protection.
7. Public-Private Partnerships:
PPP can be used as a potential source of financing and building requisite digital infrastructure.
8. Data sharing and digital integration:
A comprehensive digital strategy as well as Block-Chain Technology need to be deployed to
integrate various IT wings of all divisions/ministries to facilitate data sharing.
9. Research and Development:
Institutional framework should be in place to link academia, industry and government (Triple Helix
Model) to develop requisite digital tools suited to different kinds of service delivery.

What can Pakistan learn from international best practices in digital transformation?

1. E- Estonia:
Estonia has undertaken a holistic project to facilitate citizen interactions with the state through
the use of electronic solutions which includes:
 i-voting
 e-tax board
 e- business
 e-ticket
 e-school
 university via internet
 the e-Governance Academy as well as the release of several mobile applications.
2. China:
Deng Xiaoping took radical reforms to open Chinese economy through business- friendly policies
and training of its vast workforce. As a result, China has experienced both revolutions –industrial
and digital-almost simultaneously.
3. Pakistan can learn from the Estonian experience in e-government of accelerating digital
development through incentives, in order to develop a truly digital society.
EXPANDING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY; A CURSE OR A BLESSING
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and
misguided men. – Martin Luther King

 Introduction:
Expanding information technology is proving to be a blessing for the humanity, positively
affecting every socio-economic, political, national and international aspects of life while its
misuse is ruining the potential of the technology and proving to be a curse for the human
beings.

Information technology and the Internet are rapidly transforming almost every aspect of our
lives - some for better, some for worse. (JOHN LANDGRAF)

 What Information Technology (IT) is all about?

 Expanding IT; a blessing indeed:
HOW? IT:

 Converts the world into a hyper global village

 Removes geographical boundaries
 Connects cultures and societies

 Improves data quality of existing surveys

 It can help to increases the frequency of data collection to complement traditional
household surveys, and can also open up new avenues of data collection methods to
improve our understanding of people’s behaviors.
 Development of MPI (Multi poverty Index), HDI (Human Development Index), Gender
Inequalities index

 Helps in mitigating poverty

 Data based poverty mapping
 Improves Social life
 Communication is a lot easier than in the past
 E.g. (Email, WhatsApp, Skype)
 Managing day to day activities; making one punctual
 Personal digital assistant E.g. Google Home etc.
 Online Shopping (Amazon)
 Expands economic activities and improves economic
management
 Better tools for forecasting GDPs, monitoring Investments, and
rationalizing profits
 Interdependent world and interdependent economies
 WTO, EU
 Integrated supply chain networks
  Stock exchanges and Foreign Direct Investments
 Catalyses the development of underdeveloped countries
 Generates employment in developing countries; eradicating
poverty
 Forbes published an article naming Pakistan the fourth
fastest- growing freelance market in the world.
 A recent report in Dawn found that 16.2pc of those
with bachelor’s degrees in Pakistan are unemployed.
 Pakistan earned 5bn $ from IT exports in 2018
 Aids natural resource exploitation
 Data collection about minerals and inviting foreign investment
 Geological surveys and simulations
 GIS and Google Earth

 Improves governance and ensures transparency

 Helps in better policy formulation and implementation
 Corroboration of facts and figures
 Collection of evidence-based data
 Monitoring of policy implementation
 Ensures participation
 Improves policing
 Intelligence led policing
 Community policing
 Enhances health and agriculture sector
 Long distance operations using 5G
 Improves agro yield through better monitoring of crops
 Remote sensing and controlling pesticides
 Localized spray of pesticides
 Modern agro farms
 Drip irrigation system
 Alleviation of public grievances
 Helps in documenting economy
 Taxation and Revenue Collection
 Curbing money laundering, terror financing and human trafficking
 Financial Action Task force (FATF), IMF, World bank monitoring
 Revolutionizes transportation sector
 Ensure safety in high speed travelling
 Ride hailing services
 Uber, Careem, Airlift
 Innovates learning and education
 Easy access to information
 Khan academy, Coursera
 Better software for research and development
  ANSYS, AutoCAD, MS Excel
 E-learning
 Virtual learning

 Monitors climate change and helps make better and efficacious policies
to tackle it
 IT created mass awareness against climate threat among public
 Scientists are using IT to monitor climate change

 Strengthens defense capabilities

 Better surveillance of borders
 Pak-Afghan border control
 Modern artillery and unmanned automated vehicles
 Drones and satellite monitoring
 Cyber security

 Misuse of IT; a curse for humanity:

 Controlling data for strategic purposes
 China’s Huawei 5G and acquiring technology

 Inundation of misinformation
 Misuse of social media: propagation of hate material, extremist narratives
 Religious intolerance
 Abuse of data
 Political abuse
 Cambridge Analytica: use of data to manipulate minds for political
mileage
 Rise of populism
 Rise of Donald trump, Brexit
 Social abuse
 Online harassment
 Women harassment cases are skyrocketing
 Increased honor killings etc
 Immoral and adulterated content is spread through IT
 Economic abuse
 Fear of domination by the AI dominated world
 Machines and robots are taking over raw jobs
 Trade war (US- China trade war)
 Loosening social fabric
 Making new generation more dependent on IT
 Stymieing physical growth of youth
 More time is spent on screen
 16-24ys spend 3 hours on social media per day
 “All the world's combined knowledge is at our fingertips. But the
same technology that makes this possible is robbing us of deeper
insight.” John Landgraf

 Encourages sophisticated arm race

 S-400 of Russia
 Anti ballistic missiles
 Drones for spying
 Tactical weapons

 Pakistan and the role of expanding IT

 900,000 websites are blocked by PTA
 Telecom penetration in Pakistan: as of October 2019 there were 163 million cellular
subscribers meaning that the telecom penetration of the country is an impressive 77pc. Of
these 163m, there are an estimated 73m subscribers of 3G and 4G technology; the
remaining 90m then are 2G subscribers using feature phones and non-internet basic
cellphone users. That`s a significant number.
 computer ownership was abysmally low at 2pc (After Access 3.0 report (April 2019)
released by LIRNE Asia, a regional ICT think tank)
 Adding to this conundrum, the Taking Stock: Data and Evidence on Gender Digital
Equality report (March 2019) of the Japan-based United Nations University states
that only 3pc of women inPakistan are able to copy or move a file or folder on a
computer.
 By comparison then, the statistic about nearly 30pc of poor Pakistani women that
find it challenging to afford a digital device (phone or computer) does not come
across as a school.
 Issue of digital illiteracy:
 Beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme continue to be taken
advantage of by middlemen who exploit their illiteracy
 Access between income segments. A sustainable solution, this can be
implemented by converting libraries into digital literacy centres, especially in
smaller cities, towns and districts.
 The DigiSkills online learning portal launched under the policy offers massive
open online courses (MOOCs) on employment skills on a self-learning basis.
 Regular workshops ranging from mobile phone utilisation and internet usage to
coding skills training could be held specifically for women and PWD who are
usually absent from both libraries and tech spaces.
 Ehsaas policy to reduce poverty is based on information technology, includes
digitalized data collection
 Punjab Information Technology Board and integration of IT in numerous state
institutions
 Online FIR lodging system in police
 Inventory control system in hospitals
 Punjab safe city authority in Punjab
 National water policy and “Recharge Pakistan” policy has used IT tools to formulate
policy
 GRACE technology provided by NASA will be used
 Integration of IT in economic sector is doing wonders for the country
 World bank included Pakistan in top 20 reformers in doing business due to
opening of online one window portals for streamlining and removing
bottlenecks in ease of doing business
 The Digital Pakistan Vision
 the Ministry of Information and Technology is set to launch `Baytee`, a mobile
application that acts as a consolidated portal for women empowerment related
services delivery.
 Take for example, the `Mera Bacha Alert` a mobile application rolled out by the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government last month, similar to the internationally known
`Amber Alert` for the purpose of recovery of missing children in the province.
 The ‘Report Corruption’ app aims at digitalizing the government’s anti-corruption
initiatives. It will allow people to file complaints anonymously, thereby
encouraging whistleblowers to come forward without fearing backlash.

 Limiting the curse, expanding the blessings:

 Controlling misuse of social media by placing extensive regulatory frameworks and
checks
 Starting awareness campaigns to educate masses about the use of IT
 Strengthening international cooperation in IT fields to curb the threats of nefarious
international propagandas against religions, sects and ethnicities
 Empowering international agencies to curb the threats of cyber-crimes and cyber
warfare

 Conclusion