KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, the President of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and Chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board, Mian Zahid Hussain, said that restrictions on the internet to deal with few hundred miscreants is a wrong move which is against the national interests.
Slow Internet is damaging hundreds of IT companies, banks, e-commerce companies, and millions of freelancer youth, and the country is losing a lot of foreign exchange, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the political parties in the government have objections to this decision, so it should be withdrawn, and unnecessary restrictions on the Internet should be lifted.
He said that, like many other things all over the world, the Internet is also misused. However, in other countries, criminals are caught, and people are not deprived of important sources of information and income.
He said what is being done needs to be corrected. The IT and freelancing sectors are affected by taking people offline, and unemployment is increasing. Policymakers should consider the implications of their decisions before it’s too late.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that long-term loss and instability for temporary political gain is a losing trade because it spreads disillusionment and may increase the flight of capital and talent.
In no country do long-term interests prevail over short-term interests. Most of the world’s nations are busy strengthening the digital infrastructure and connecting their citizens to it. However, in Pakistan, due to the malice of some individuals, this link is being weakened, which is sad and very harmful to the country’s economy.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Internet services increase economic growth, trade, income, and employment, and their importance cannot be denied in the current era.
He noted that a single-minute interruption results in a heavy price. He said that we try to compete with India in everything. The heads of the world’s most famous tech companies are Indians. Millions of people are connected to this sector, and software exports are more than two hundred billion dollars, which is increasing further. On the other hand, we are busy ruining our important sector. Due to this, our software exports, which are only 3.2 billion dollars, are decreasing instead of increasing.
He further said that the number of customers who get employment through the Internet is decreasing rapidly. Internet slowness has become a major problem.
Trying to send a voice note or a picture or downloading a picture through WhatsApp has also become difficult. Similarly, running many important social media applications has become difficult.
The issue of internet shutdown in Pakistan is not new. It has been shut down on various occasions. Still, this time, due to internet degradation and severe problems in using WhatsApp and other applications, it has become a problem for foreign companies working in Pakistan and individual clients. It has added to the hardships of those helping themselves and their country, which is unfortunate.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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