Time to end digital divide in Pakistan
https://arab.news/6x78w
While Pakistan is on its way to becoming one of the world’s largest digital societies in terms of IT infrastructure, recent protests by young internet users have made it clear that it is also one of a wide and unjust digital divide.
The continued digitalization of society, business and governance in the past few years has resulted in an explosion of digital entrepreneurship, innovation and Pakistan's integration with the world.
The numbers are impressive. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which also regulates internet access, as of May 2020, mobile phone density in Pakistan was 78.5% — or 166 million people who mostly use smartphones. While most of them are connected to the internet, 38% or 80 million use 3G/4G high-speed connections.
Demand for connectivity is so high that in the past four weeks youngsters and university students in Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and even Islamabad, have been holding demonstrations for internet access. In Quetta and in the tribal areas, the protests were so passionate that the authorities dealt with them high-handedly and even arrested some women students, leading to an outcry on social media.
What is driving this unexpected passionate demand for the internet?
Apart from Islamabad, all these regions are characterized in terms of military security, which is why they have been left behind in the process of digital transformation. Authorities have thwarted attempts to integrate them into the growing national digital grid.
The reason: increasing youth-led civil society mobilization for liberties and fundamental rights — free speech, civic development and employment opportunities — has not been welcomed by the security establishment and political government. It is even more unwelcome when it comes from the tribal areas, driven by the popular youth-led group Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, which is blacked out by the mainstream media and relies for its messaging totally on social media platforms.
A digital Pakistan should empower everyone. It’s time for the government to walk the talk and deliver on the promises it made in Digital Pakistan Policy, as in the post-COVID-19 world it is all the more imperative that the state remains digitally connected with all its citizens.
Adnan Rehmat
Since COVID-19 hit Pakistan, widely disrupting critical service delivery, the underdeveloped regions have been further sidelined, as life-as-usual came to a halt and a major part of the official national disaster response has become digital.
With educational activity disrupted by the virus outbreak and unlikely to resume anytime soon, the government has been encouraging online education. In the country's more developed urban areas, schools and universities have resorted to virtual classes, but students in less developed and less networked areas have not been able to do so. They are protesting against being left behind yet again and demand internet access to bridge the digital divide.
This was even something acknowledged and ordered redressed last month by the Islamabad High Court, which was seized with a petition demanding equitable internet access in deprived regions.
Pakistan’s failure to provide equitable digital opportunities to all its people runs against Digital Pakistan Policy announced by Imran Khan's government in 2018. Aimed at accelerating digitalization for Pakistan's integration with the world, one of its key policy goals is to expand connectivity across the country. As the protests amply demonstrate, this still has not happened and the state’s failure to provide quality education to the youth of its underdeveloped regions is now aggravated by continued denial of universal access to high-speed internet.
A digital Pakistan should empower everyone. It’s time for the government to walk the talk and deliver on the promises it made in Digital Pakistan Policy, as in the post-COVID-19 world it is all the more imperative that the state remains digitally connected with all its citizens.
– Adnan Rehmat is a Pakistan-based journalist, researcher and analyst with interests in politics, media, development and science.
Twitter: @adnanrehmat1
