FThe free online technology classes that were advertised garnered hundreds of “likes” on Facebook and eventually 1,500 people signed up. But on the first day last week, only a handful of those registered managed to connect to the live session. The internet was running at a snail’s pace.
“We receive hundreds of complaints,” says course tutor Wardah Noor, founder of computer training company XWave, based in Layyah, in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Internet speeds in the country have abandonment According to the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Wispap), internet connectivity has dropped by 30-40% in recent weeks. IT companies say this has cost Pakistani businesses hundreds of millions of dollars.
Those who were able to connect to Noor’s course complained that the audio was choppy and the connection was failing. “We had no choice but to end the two-hour session in one hour and the question and answer portion of the programme was removed,” she says.
Live sessions have now become recorded lessons, which Noor says “just isn’t the same.”
Many in the IT and software sector believe the cause of the chaos is that the government is testing a new nationwide internet firewall.
“On the one hand, the new government is promising an IT revolution for Pakistan, and on the other, it is completely holding it back,” says Noor.
The government has repeatedly denied responsibility for the problems, but has admitted there are plans to install a firewall to regulate, block malicious content and protect government networks.
Information and Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Sunday that her team had been “working tirelessly” with internet service providers to resolve the issue and He blamed Pakistan’s “large population” to tighten the net.
“It is the right of the government to take measures to protect its interests given the cybersecurity attacks that Pakistan is facing,” he said.
According to Khawaja, the firewall will allow the Pakistani government to reach out to people who carry out “anti-state propaganda.” Iran, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and several other countries already have such firewalls in place.
Following unrest sparked by the arrest last year of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan’s government blocked social media sites where support for Khan had been building and slowed connection speeds.
Platform X has been blocked since the February election due to “national security” concerns, and supporters of Khan’s party point out that he is the most popular Pakistani on the platform, with nearly 21 million followers.
If the new firewall is behind the massive disruptions the country is experiencing, there should have been some warning, says Khuram Rahat, vice president of P@SHAan association of around 1,500 software and IT companies.
“It makes sense to take action for our national security, but in retrospect I would say that it could have been better planned and managed,” he said.
P@SHA cybersecurity expert Azam Mughal says members have reported huge financial losses. “International clients have told these companies that they do not want to give them projects in the future as everything in technology has to be based on on-time delivery,” says Mughal.
He says companies could have been warned: “Whenever new software is implemented, it is tested in a closed laboratory environment, to anticipate initial problems; this did not happen.”
“Our survey found that the country has lost up to $300 million due to internet disruptions in recent months,” he said.
Pakistan recorded $298 million (£228m) in IT exports in June, up 33% from a year earlier. IT exports amounted to $3.2bn in the fiscal year ending in June, up from $2.5bn in 2023.
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Mughal says privacy concerns should not be ignored, as a firewall controls, filters and monitors the content that enters and leaves the digital realm, including who is generating it. “Any time you try to control digital borders, you are committing a form of censorship,” he says.
However, a firewall can minimize the spread of extremism, religious intolerance, and false content.
But many question the need for a firewall. Jehan Ara, a startup ecosystem consultant, says: “Is it to control conversations on social media or to prevent criticism and transparency?”
Hassan Belal Zaidi, editor of Dawn newspaper, says the slowdown is a “big headache for national newsrooms” and that it is now difficult to reach correspondents in remote areas.
“WhatsApp has become the primary means of transmitting information, multimedia content and images, and this system has been virtually paralysed by the limitation of these applications,” he says. “The astronomical increase in taxes on internet services means that we are paying almost double the price for half the connectivity.”
But perhaps the worst affected are the more than 500,000 self-employed IT workers in Pakistan who rely on mobile data.
“Is a reliable internet connection too much to ask for in today’s digital age?” asks Bilal Khosa, 25, who works remotely in digital marketing.
“Overdue tasks, missed deadlines and lost productivity are becoming the norm,” he says.
Khosa uses Fiverr, a freelancing platform, which now displays an “out of office” message. The slowdown has had a devastating effect on his rankings, which could take “six months or more” to recover, he says.
“The competition is so tough that there are hundreds of people waiting to take your place,” says Khosa.
Larger companies have not been spared. Veqar Islam, chief executive of Jaffer Business Systems, which employs more than 1,000 people, says that “doing things this strange way” is tantamount to taking Pakistan “back to the stone age”.
He says he just had a difficult meeting with some American clients: “They told me that if we want to work with them, we should consider relocating our back end.”
Islam says other clients are threatening to cancel contracts. “These measures not only create disasters in the present, but have long-lasting effects that can last for decades.”
