Pakistan's IT Industry Association – the nation's sole tech biz lobby group – has warned that government policy could lead to business closures and financial losses among its constituents, and damage the nation's IT exports.
P@SHA's main beef is with a slowing of internet access speeds, and government-imposed service outages. Pakistan went offline in May 2022 around the time ofof encouraging freelancers to sell their services online as part of a plan to grow tech services exports. The nation evenof providing its freelance workers with a tax holiday, subsidized broadband and health insurance as a way of supporting the online labor force.
But freelancers have had a hard time of it since the August 2024 introduction of what appears to be a new national firewall. Pakistan has long tried to limit access to what it feels is inappropriate content, and the firewall was aimed at helping that effort. But it greatly slowed internet access speeds – making life hard for freelancers and other online businesses.
Syed called the situation an"irreparable setback" and claimed it would have a"domino effect" on other sectors of the economy.