Digital lag

In Pakistan’s deeply classist society, the country’s poor keep getting shoved into isolation, allowing the well-heeled to exploit resources and get richer. And the digital age has not necessarily changed matters too greatly. Last week, the UNDP launched ‘Digital Development Index’ (DDI), which measures digital development progress across Pakistan’s provinces and districts. The report – ‘Pakistan National Human Development Report 2023/2024’ – on Doing Digital for Development places Pakistan in the ‘moderate’ digital development category. The country ranks 45 out of 52 countries in the World Internet Development Index – a disappointing ranking that calls for the immediate attention of the authorities concerned. But this moderate development is not uniform across the country. Urban cities like Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Haripur and Abbottabad have high digital development rankings. This means that a Pakistani’s access to digital advancements depends on the district s/he lives in. The report also adds, that “digital development in Pakistan’s richest quintile is 15 times greater than that in the poorest quintile, meaning that wealth is a huge marker of digital development.”

Growth in Pakistan is mostly led by the private sector, which means that people rely on technologies introduced by profit-making companies – usually available at high costs. This creates affordability challenges for people from low-income backgrounds. The report also mentions that “54.3 per cent of the country does not have access to the internet because of inadequate digital infrastructure and a ordability challenges.” Pakistan has been slow at embracing technology. While the private sector has thrived, it has also failed to deal with infrastructural challenges that require government intervention. As a result, Pakistan’s IT industry continues to fail to tap into the potential of the tech sector.

This report should be a wakeup call for our authorities who should take the relevant steps to embrace the digital revolution. Pakistan has an abundance of talented individuals who can help the country reach its digitization goals in the shortest time possible. Over the years, Pakistan’s IT sector has shown willingness to grow and digitize. They have been participating in tech events across the globe to show the world that Pakistan has the potential to manufacture and export high-tech goods. The government needs to enter into public-private partnerships to ensure that this technological revolution is not limited to certain areas. A digitized country will also help the country bring the undocumented sector into the tax net. Digital payments will decrease people’s reliance on cash. But to do all this, Pakistan has to recognize the importance of the internet. Policies like shutting down the internet for days must be discouraged – or banning social media sites or coming up with ‘firewalls’. While it is true that the country has security challenges, our dream towards digitization will fail to materialize unless we stop meddling with the internet. Foreign investment for digital initiatives will start pouring in if we authorities build a healthy environment for this technology to thrive. A digital Pakistan is the key to a self-reliant and prosperous Pakistan.