THE PROBLEM WITH PAKISTAN’S TECH VISION

While politicians paint rosy pictures of a digital Pakistan, those on the ground decry the lack of infrastructure, constant headaches in doing business.

On a cold January morning, newly graduated Waheeda took off her shoes and entered a data centre for the first time in her life. The small but heavy door could only be opened by data centre staff, with a security code to be entered into a machine mounted on the wall.

Inside, it was freezing cold, and a man with knee-length, bright yellow rubber boots explained the dos and don’ts of being in a data centre of TechM*, an internet service provider (ISP) located in Korangi, Karachi. No shoes, because dirt can’t enter a data centre, stay away from all racks where the servers are placed; observe from a distance.

That was not a problem for Waheeda, who was exhilarated at finally seeing in action what she had only studied in theory at her local engineering university.

The excitement withered when, two days into her job, she got yelled at on the phone by representatives of an international bank, who had hired the data centre’s services. A technical fault had disrupted the company’s services, and had gone unnoticed by TechM.

Workers of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had, without any intimation, cut underground cables laid down by the ISP, and were carrying out some repair work there. Waheeda learned that TechM has over a dozen international clients that use its data centre to provide services to their Pakistani clients.

While politicians paint rosy pictures of a digital Pakistan, those on the ground decry the lack of infrastructure, constant headaches in doing business, overweening censorship, a lack of consultation and haphazardly designed tech policies. Meanwhile, government attempts at protecting citizens’ data may be geared more towards giving the state access to that data…

Though low in number, they had a disproportionately high number of complaints registered with the customer support centre, and TechM had lost quite a lot of money in adjustments to these companies over disruption of service. Many of the disconnections happened because of power blackouts in the country, city administrations cutting internet cables at random, or due to cyber-attacks.

This was nine years ago, but Waheeda says, not much has changed how outside infrastructure in Pakistan affects the everyday operations of ISPs and tech companies.

TECH HEADACHES

“Every day we had a barrage of problems, and everyday employees wondered out loud if it was worth working there,” she tells Eos in between tending to her toddler. She scoffs when asked about Pakistan trying to force international companies, every now and then, to establish their data and technical services here.

“Running basic operations in the country is difficult — why would an international company bother with establishing their physical infrastructure here. Our state seems to have no idea about how ISPs and network services work here,” she says.

During the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government’s tenure, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had proposed multiple amendments to existing cybercrime and media laws, and planned to introduce a data protection law, a longstanding demand of digital rights advocates in Pakistan.