Digitalising Pakistan

The government's vision for a Digital Pakistan is no doubt extensive – encompassing infrastructure, e-governance, fin-tech, digital skills and training, and innovation and entrepreneurship. A multitude of mobile applications for facilitation of citizens have also been launched in this regard. The digitalization will no doubt also help in providing jobs to the youth and spur their creative abilities. But how many of us are actually able to take advantage of such endeavours? The answer is quite depressing, but the reason is even more so. Lack of education, overall literacy, especially digital literacy are all hurdles for the common man to take benefit from the introduced technologies. For example, beneficiaries of BISP continue to be taken advantage of by middlemen who exploit their illiteracy. I believe that the government should also focus on provision of core digital literacy to the people – by either making it a part of the school curriculum, introducing more learning portals like DigiSkills, or giving hands on trainings through NAVTTEC. It is only then can the country truly profit from the digital era.

Kanwal Ashraf

Islamabad