LAHORE: Experts have welcomed Pakistan’s first National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy 2025 as a landmark move to integrate AI into governance and industry but cautioned that the lack of a dedicated hardware strategy could undermine its long-term impact.
The policy sets out plans to train one million AI professionals, launch thousands of AI-driven projects, and draw private investment to boost the economy, yet analysts warn that continued reliance on foreign technology may hinder the country’s competitiveness.
In his conversation with The News, Convenor Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on IT committee and Chairman Viper Group Khushnood Aftab discussed various areas of the policy and recommend a few suggestions towards its successful implementation across the country.
Q: Pakistan has just rolled out its first National AI Policy. As a technology leader, how do you see this development?
A: It is a landmark move. For the first time, the government has put AI on the national agenda with a clear framework for skills development, innovation, and integration into public services. The prime minister, the minister of IT, and the Special Investment Facilitation Council deserve credit for showing this level of foresight. It signals that Pakistan wants to be a serious player in the AI space, not just a consumer of other nations’ technologies.
Q: What specific parts of the policy do you find most promising?
A: The focus on training one million AI professionals by 2030, funding AI startups and launching AI-powered civic projects is very encouraging. If implemented well, these initiatives could transform our talent pool and create entirely new industries. It is also good to see emphasis on ethics, inclusivity and regulatory alignment with international standards — these are important for building trust and attracting investment. It is a bold, visionary step that deserves praise. But if we want to be truly competitive and self-reliant, AI hardware must be brought into the equation in the next phase. Pakistan has the brains. Now we must also build the muscle. Only then can we say we have a complete and sovereign AI ecosystem.
Q: What are suggestions to further improve the major gaps in the policy?
A: Yes, a significant one, the complete absence of AI hardware from the policy. All the talk is about software, skills and applications, which is important, but AI cannot function without high-performance computing infrastructure. We are talking about GPUs, AI processors, local data centres and even edge devices. Without investing in this layer, we will be building an AI ecosystem that is entirely dependent on foreign hardware and cloud platforms.
Q: Why is hardware so critical in AI development?
A: AI is computationally heavy. Training large models, running simulations, processing massive datasets require specialised hardware. The software is the brain, but the hardware is the body that makes the brain work. If that body is always rented from abroad, your capabilities are capped and your sovereignty is compromised. You might have the best AI engineers in the world, but they will be running their models on someone else’s machines.
Q: How has Pakistan treated the hardware question in the past?
A: Historically, it’s been neglected. The focus has almost always been on services and imports rather than building our own production capabilities. This isn’t because we lack capacity — Pakistan has companies that assemble and manufacture computing devices — but there’s been little to no policy support, incentives, or investment to grow this sector. It’s the same story with AI — hardware is simply not part of the conversation at the policy level.
Q: What’s the danger of continuing down this path?
A: The danger is dependency, plain and simple. You can have brilliant AI talent, but without your own compute infrastructure, you’re dependent on foreign vendors for your most critical technology. That creates a strategic vulnerability. Imagine training pilots but having to lease all your planes from abroad — your future is always in someone else’s hands.
Q: So what should the government do to fix this gap?
A: Several things. First, introduce incentives for local AI hardware manufacturing — tax breaks, R&D grants, and import substitution plans for semiconductors and electronics. Second, invest in public-private partnerships for high-performance AI data centres in Pakistan, possibly with international funding but built and operated locally. Third, expand training programs beyond coding to include hardware engineering, FPGA design, and edge computing. And finally, make AI hardware procurement part of government infrastructure policy, so critical AI workloads run on sovereign compute systems.
Q: Do you think Pakistan can realistically build such hardware locally?
A: Absolutely. We may not be designing chips like Nvidia tomorrow, but we can certainly assemble, integrate and scale computing systems that meet our AI needs. We already have local players in hardware manufacturing who can do this. With the right incentives and partnerships, Pakistan can build a Made in Pakistan AI hardware ecosystem within a few years.