By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Pakistan’s IT sector is facing a crisis as a government-imposed firewall causes widespread disruptions, with estimated losses of $300 million, amid warnings of a prolonged economic impact.
The government is implementing an internet firewall to monitor and regulate content and social media platforms, according to local media reports. The coalition government, however, denies the use of the firewall for censorship.
The Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said IT industry is facing a “disaster” from the government’s hastily implemented national firewall.
“The imposition of the firewall has triggered a perfect storm of challenges, with prolonged internet disconnections and erratic VPN performance threatening a complete meltdown of business operations,” P@SHA said in a statement on Thursday.
“These disruptions are not mere inconveniences but a direct and aggressive assault on the industry’s viability, inflicting devastating financial losses estimated to reach at $300 million, which can further increase exponentially.”
Internet infrastructure suffered a major disruption on Thursday, with widespread outages reported across the country.
The outage, affecting major online platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, follows allegations by the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Wispap) that government efforts to monitor internet traffic have caused a significant nationwide slowdown.
Internet speeds have plummeted by 30-40 percent in recent weeks, Wispap said a day earlier, prompting businesses to consider relocating operations abroad.
The PTA has denied the issue was caused by a firewall but has yet to comment on the latest outage.
Muhammad Aamir, CEO of an an IT firm AXCEL said the government-imposed firewall “is going to be the bottleneck of this nation’s economy”.
The statement said the government’s inexplicable opacity and ambiguity surrounding the firewall’s design and objectives have ignited a firestorm of distrust among global clients.
“They fear their proprietary data and privacy will be compromised, which only serves to erode the hard earned trust and confidence in Pakistan’s IT capabilities,” the statement added. “A mass exodus of IT companies is not just a possibility but an imminent reality if immediate and decisive action is not taken.”
“Clients are looking for reliable partners. Even if they want to give projects to us due to relationship development, they still prefer not to due to their perception of our unreliable connectivity,” the statement quoted an anonymous source within the industry as saying.
P@SHA demands an immediate and unconditional halt to this digital siege.
“We insist on a comprehensive, transparent, and collaborative approach to cybersecurity—one that does not sacrifice the IT industry at the altar of misplaced priorities,” the statement said.
It said the government must engage in genuine dialogue with industry stakeholders to develop a cybersecurity framework that safeguards national interests without stifling innovation and growth. “The economy is a national security priority. Unfortunately, without consultation an damaging repercussions for the fastest-growing export sector, we see a careless and reckless implementation of the national firewall that threatens to strangle the IT industry before its maturity.”
P@SHA urges the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom (MoITT) to take swift and decisive action to rectify the grave situation.
“Failure to do so will have far-reaching consequences for Pakistan’s economy and its standing as a global technology hub. The IT industry is a critical engine of growth; it is a lifeline for the nation’s future.”
Pakistan recorded $298 million in IT exports in June, up 33 percent from the year before. During the fiscal year that ended in June, IT exports were worth $3.2 billion, up 24 percent from $2.5 billion in the fiscal year 2023.
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