EDITORIAL: Amidst all the high-sounding goals of the government’s much-touted Uraan Pakistan initiative, the one related to its e-Pakistan component is increasingly appearing to be the most perplexing.
How can the government’s ambitious vision for the IT sector – envisaging a USD 5 billion freelance industry, mobile connectivity surpassing 100 million subscribers, and establishing of a sophisticated startup ecosystem and AI framework – ever be achieved when its actions on the ground have consistently undermined progress in this sphere?
In another demonstration of how frequent internet shutdowns, restrictions on social media, and policies that stifle freedoms and connectivity essential for technological growth have had damaging economic consequences, it has emerged that Pakistan led the world last year in terms of financial losses suffered as a result of internet outages and bans on social media apps, with a cumulative monetary impact worth USD 1.62 billion.
This was revealed in a report by a global independent VPN reviewer, which estimated the cost of deliberate internet shutdowns worldwide due to total blackouts, social media bans and throttling. In all, 18 instances of deliberate internet outages were recorded in the country in 2024, lasting 9,375 hours and impacting 82.9 million users.
The three primary causes recorded for these disruptions included the February elections, the authorities’ obsession with ‘information control’ and political protests.
Notably, the ban on X proved most damaging, resulting in a loss of around $1.34 billion, highlighting the app’s primacy not only as a platform for free speech and the exchange of ideas and information, but also as a critical driver of economic activity, facilitating businesses, freelancers and digital entrepreneurs across the country.
Also resulting in significant losses were the outages in Balochistan in July and August amidst the protests held by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee in Gwadar that had lasted 864 hours, underscoring how already economically and politically disadvantaged communities were further marginalised.
One wonders how these shutdowns helped resolve matters in a region where economic opportunities are already scarce and a deep sense of alienation exists among a significant section of the population.
The repeated refrain of security concerns forcing the authorities’ hands with respect to throttling of internet freedoms is one that is difficult to accept or comprehend. The frequency of terror attacks has consistently been on the rise in recent times, even with increasing restrictions on digital rights, clearly demonstrating that these measures do not achieve the intended results — if that was even the true aim of such draconian control to begin with.
It is also important to note that the cost of such oppressive actions isn’t just monetary; they are equally damaging to Pakistan’s international reputation. For instance, what does it say about our global standing as a nation committed to innovation and technological growth when Pakistan’s economic losses due to internet outages even surpass the countries’ that are devastated by civil war, including Myanmar and Sudan?
Given this, how will our tech startups ever hope to attract high quality, sound international investments, and the freelance sector expect to thrive when the basic infrastructure essential for its success is routinely compromised? Furthermore, the 5G spectrum auction scheduled for later in the year could prove to be a tricky endeavour as well, as attracting investments in such an unstable environment could become exceedingly difficult.
It increasingly appears, if there was ever any doubt, that the powers-that-be are focused more on limiting citizens’ digital rights to serve their own political agenda, and care little about the damaging economic consequences for an already fragile economy. If the authorities are truly aiming for a comprehensive digital transformation, they must explain how restricting internet freedom aligns with their stated goals for advancing the IT sector.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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