Pakistan’s new firewall could cost the economy $300 million
- Islamabad introduces firewall to monitor and regulate digital content and social media platforms
- However, this move may cause internet disruption, which in turn will harm many industries, especially the IT industry.
- The impact of such disruptions on the country’s economy would be devastating.
Pakistan’s new Internet firewall can cost the economy a whopping $300 millionsaid the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) in a press release on Thursday.
According to local media reports, Islamabad has decided to build a firewall to Monitor and regulate content and social media platforms. The government refuses to use firewalls as a form of censorshipPakistan’s Minister of State for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja said the same last month.
However, the reason for installing a firewall no longer matters. What matters are the consequences.
- According to Ali Ihsan, Senior Vice Chairman of P@SHA, the firewall has already started Internet outages and VPN disruptions.
- He added that these Internet connections are not just an inconvenience. It is a “direct, tangible and aggressive attack on the viability of the industry“.
If things continue like this, Pakistan will soon experience a complete collapse of business activity. This in turn will lead to devastating economic losses that can amount to up to $300 million or even more.
Neither the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority nor Khawaja commented on this prediction. P@SHA is unhappy with the government’s silence on the matter.
It was said that this Lack of transparency further fuels distrust of the government among the population and among Pakistan’s global IT customers, who fear that their private data could be at risk if the government intercepts their every activity.
Importance of IT industry in Pakistan
The IT sector is crucial to the Pakistani economy.
- In June, IT export earnings reached $298 million, up 33% year-on-year.
- In the fiscal year ended June, total revenue from IT exports was $3.2 billion.
Pakistan clearly cannot afford to lose its global IT customers.
The P@SHA is also calls for a stop to this initiative Instead, it called on authorities to work with industry experts to develop a cybersecurity framework that serves its purpose without restricting users’ digital freedom.
Pakistan’s history of censorship?
Although Pakistani authorities claim they do not use the firewall to censor Internet activity, The track record speaks against it.
In February, for example, the country blocked access to social media platform X after protests broke out when imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan won a majority despite his party being banned.
At that time, the authorities had declared that the closure was necessary to control anti-state activities. It was also said that X had violated local laws.
However, human rights activists say the ban is a means of preventing government critics from expressing their opinions.
