Comment by Riaz Haq on May 22, 2023 at 10:25am

For four days last week, Pakistan’s tech industry lost between $3 million and $4 million a day as internet services across the world’s fifth-most populous nation were shut down amid political turmoil.

https://restofworld.org/2023/south-asia-newsletter-political-turmoi...


On May 9, Pakistan’s former prime minister and popular politician Imran Khan was arrested in Islamabad on charges of corruption. This led to widespread protests across the country, and the government imposed an “indefinite” internet shutdown in several regions. On May 12, the Supreme Court ruled Khan’s arrest illegal, and he was subsequently released. Internet services in Pakistan have now been restored, but the damage has already been done.

The shutdown was a “massive setback” for the country’s IT industry, the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said in a tweet on May 11. “This is an alarming situation, and action needs to be taken urgently to address this issue,” it said in another tweet. “P@SHA demands immediate action to resolve the problem.”

Careem, inDrive, Foodpanda, and Bykea were among the companies that took the worst hit from the internet suspension, reported independent news platform ProPakistani.

Pakistan’s telecomms industry also lost $5.4 million in revenue due to the shutdown, a source told Al Jazeera on May 12. “The devastating effect on the economy is quantifiable but the inconvenience to people is incalculable,” tweeted Aamir Hafeez Ibrahim, CEO of mobile network operator Jazz.


In a letter to the government last week, Pakistan-focused venture capital association VCAP said such “restrictions have an immediate and adverse impact on Pakistan’s startups, which are reliant on such platforms for new user acquisition and growth. The suspension of mobile broadband also greatly impacts Pakistani citizens, who are mobile-first, and use these digital solutions for financial services, mobility, food, commerce, and more.”

Meanwhile, freelance workers in the country also lost access to the outside world during the shutdown. Pakistan is the third-largest global supplier of freelance work, and IT services make up a large chunk of it. Employers seeking Pakistani workers on freelance marketplace Fiverr were met with a note that read: “This freelancer is in a location currently experiencing internet disruptions. As a result, they may not be able to fulfill orders as quickly as usual.”

The crisis could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan’s tech workers, and the industry as a whole. The country has been dealing with a massive economic crisis, with dwindling forex reserves. It is currently waiting on a $1.1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan’s foreign direct investment (FDI) plunged 44% in the first seven months of the 2023 financial year.

Calling it “absolutely nonsense from the international point of view,” Wille Eerola, chairman of the Finland Pakistan Business Council, said the internet shutdown is “only harming — or even destroying — the image of Pakistan as a country for international business and FDI.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 22, 2023 at 10:25am

TikTok: The new frontier for political info-wars

https://www.dawn.com/news/1754935

KARACHI: Within mom­ents of the violent protests that broke out across the country on May 9, hours after PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), videos of people vandalising public and private properties, torching buildings, and clashing with police began circulating on social media.

Alarmed, the authorities quickly pulled the plug on mobile internet and blocked public access to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. The rationale was to not allow the protesters — and in some cases, genuine miscreants — to continue mobilising using the reach of social media.

The government, clearly wary of PTI’s social media prowess, seems to have been satisfied with blocking the three platforms, likely believing the move would be enough to blunt its main rival’s most potent tool.

The PTI is, after all, a juggernaut on the three aforementioned platforms, with an aggregate following of over 17.6 million. However, the government left a flank unguarded: TikTok. They either did not take the platform seriously, or were totally clueless about its potential in narrative warfare.

TikTok is uncharted territory in the social media landscape of Pakistani politics. Only two parties — the PTI and PML-N — have official TikTok accounts. Between the two, the PTI is far ahead in the game. The traction it enjoys is overwhelming.

Its official TikTok account has three million followers and has accumulated over 167.4m likes on its video content. Meanwhile, the PML-N’s follower count stands at a measly 41,300, with just over 770,000 likes on its content.

With Twitter inaccessible, the PTI and its social media team checked the government’s move by leveraging TikTok. It went full throttle on the platform. In four days — from May 9, when Mr Khan was arrested, to May 12, when the Supreme Court ordered his release — 164 videos were posted on PTI’s official account; an average of 41 videos per day.

These videos were viewed by over 100 million people, garnered over 62 million likes and 191,000 comments. They were shared by around 260,000 people. The average engagement on each video was: over 618,000 views, 378,000 likes, 1,165 comments and 1,583 shares.

The PTI shared messages from PTI leaders and montages of Mr Khan in action. While TV screens dedicated themselves to scenes depicting violence, the PTI posted videos showing ‘peaceful’ demonstrations.

It also effectively used the platform to mobilise workers with calls to gather at specific locations in various cities.

Radio silence

The numbers show that the PTI enjoyed an open field on TikTok. The only other political account — the PML-N’s — posted only two videos in the same period, which were viewed for a total of around 134,000 times. Their cumulative engagement was around 9,400 likes, 348 comments and 908 shares.

Videos with the hashtag #fitnaarrested — including those posted by the PML-N official account and its followers — got only about 2.7m views. Meanwhile, videos with the hashtag #ReleaseImranKhan, used by PTI and its followers, got a total of over 233.6m views.

The efficacy of the government’s move to shut down three major social media platforms was debatable, as most people easily bypassed the gag by using a VPN.

As for the objective behind the move — to curb the PTI’s power to mobilise — the numbers from TikTok show that it failed to achieve it. These numbers also showed the futility of attempts to curb the spread of information during a time when there’s a vast range of social media platforms available.

Whether governments — the incumbent and subsequent — learn that lesson is yet to be seen.

PTI’s TikTok juggernaut

On the face of it, TikTok and political discourse do not seem to go hand-in-hand. ‘Fun videos’ is the phrase generally associated with the platform. However, it is a lot more than that. The place is populated by Gen Z — those born between 1997 and 2013 — who make up almost 39 per cent of its total users.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 22, 2023 at 10:26am

TikTok: The new frontier for political info-wars

https://www.dawn.com/news/1754935

PTI’s TikTok juggernaut

On the face of it, TikTok and political discourse do not seem to go hand-in-hand. ‘Fun videos’ is the phrase generally associated with the platform. However, it is a lot more than that. The place is populated by Gen Z — those born between 1997 and 2013 — who make up almost 39 per cent of its total users.

For them, TikTok has silently become a forum for serious debate on some of the most contentious issues of our times: from racial justice, climate change and politics, to gender-based violence, etc.

The ‘social side’ of Pakistani politics

The PTI is credited with being the pioneer in using social media for narrative building. The book, Pakistan’s Political Parties: Surviving between Dictatorship and Democracy, co-authored by Niloufer Siddiqui, Mariam Mufti and Sahar Shafqat, describes PTI as an “early mover” on the social media front “when it turned to Twitter and Facebook in order to mobilise the coveted youth vote.”

A 2014 research report on PTI’s use of Twitter by Saifuddin Ahmed and Marko M. Skoric found that its use of Twitter was “the most distinctive as it involved greater interaction with the public, more campaign updates and greater mobilisation of citizens to vote.”

‘Master TikTokers’

It is important to try and understand how the PTI and PML-N differ in their use of TikTok and what their content tells us about their strategy, narrative and messaging. As part of our research, we analysed the content published on both accounts. We took a sample of 144 videos from PTI’s account and 100 videos from PML-N’s account.

Since PTI publishes several videos every day, we restricted our sample to videos posted across five dates: March 8, March 14 to 16, and March 18. These dates were chosen as the account witnessed the most activity on these days.

On March 8, PTI workers came face to face with the police and a supporter, Ali Bilal, aka Zille Shah, died. From March 14 to 16, police laid a siege at the PTI chairman’s Zaman Park residence to arrest him, leading to another face-off with police. On March 18, Mr Khan arrived in Islamabad to appear before a court, resulting in a new standoff between the police and PTI workers.

On the face of it, PTI’s TikTok works like a well-oiled machine. The 144 videos were posted over a period of five days — almost 29 videos per day on average.

Given that most of them needed to be pieced together and edited for music and graphics, it appeared to be the work of a dedicated team of social media specialists. The PML-N’s 100 videos spanned over 82 days — from January 1 to March 25 — at an average of 1.2 videos per day.

The art of narrative-building

Niloufer Siddiqui explains that in the political context, a narrative is an idea of a political party’s ideology and what it stands for. ‘Narrative-building’ is a buzzword in politics these days as political parties want to take the lead in setting the discourse. For Ms Siddiqui, who teaches political science at the University of Albany, PTI is clear in what its narrative is. “It stands as anti-corruption, anti-status quo and anti-elite.”

Our analysis showed that PTI used TikTok to effectively take the lead in setting the narrative. Across the five days, the account consistently posted videos showing how authorities “targeted” the party’s workers. Of the 31 videos posted on March 8, 10 accused the police of torturing, tear gassing and killing a party worker.

Out of the 77 videos posted between March 14 and 16, a total of 18 were about the alleged torture of PTI workers, teargassing at Mr Khan’s house, police’s attempt to breach the Zaman Park’s door, and claims about the use of chemicals in water cannons and expired tear gas canisters. On March 18, the account posted 34 videos, of which 10 accused the government and security agencies of torturing and teargassing PTI workers and conducting an “illegal” search operation at Zaman Park.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 22, 2023 at 10:26am

TikTok: The new frontier for political info-wars

https://www.dawn.com/news/1754935


The PMLN apparently failed to counter this narrative on the three dates. In fact, only two videos were posted on the party’s official account between March 10 to March 24. They both featured Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

The analysis showed that the PTI used TikTok as an effective tool to mobilise its workers and demonstrate ‘public support’ for its chairman. In 22 of the analysed videos, PTI leaders directly addressed the workers and urged them to reach Zaman Park.

These were in addition to the use of hashtag #ZamanParkPohancho** in the description of the analysed videos. Till April 7, the videos under the said hashtag — not all of them posted by the official PTI account — had over 242m views. There were also 41 videos on the apparent ‘public support’ for Mr Khan, showing the crowd gathered outside Zaman Park and during his court appearance.

For Ms Siddiqui, a big reason for the clarity in PTI’s messaging is Mr Khan being the party’s face. “The fact is that whatever Imran Khan says becomes what PTI says. So, the PTI and Imran Khan are really synonymous.”

This contrasts with the PML-N, whose narrative, like the house of Sharifs, appears to be divided between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Ms Nawaz. Of the 100 analysed videos, the narrative of 40 videos centred around PM Shehbaz. These were clips of his meeting, interviews, media talks and governance. Ms Sharif was the focus of 23 videos. Most of these videos were her addresses, rallies, and ‘public support’.

The PML-N strategy witnessed an apparent shift after January 28 — the day Ms Sharif returned to Pakistan. All but one of the 23 videos featuring Ms Sharif were posted after this date. Before the PML-N leader’s return, the party’s narrative was focused on PM Shehbaz’s governance. Out of the 40, 33 videos featuring the prime minister were posted before this date.

The ‘Imran factor’

The analysis showed that the PTI is clear in its approach: centre the entire narrative around Chairman Imran Khan — his popularity, supporters’ willingness to “sacrifice their lives for him”, his “fight for people’s rights”, and him being a “one-man army against the state’s oppression”.

Of the 144 videos analysed, the narrative in 62 centred around Mr Khan, ranging from the conspiracy to kill him, reasons for his attempted arrest, the gag on his speeches, the cases against him, etc. In 36 out of 144 videos, Mr Khan was the sole appearance. These were clips of his speeches and his messages to PTI supporters.

This ‘Imran-centric’ content did yield results for PTI. Nine of the 14 videos on PTI’s account that crossed over a million views featured Mr Khan. Not only for his party, but the PTI chairman also fetched eyeballs for the rival PML-N. Of the ten most-viewed videos on the PML-N’s account during the period in consideration, four were directly critical of Mr Khan.

‘The voter is changing’

While political campaigns run on Pakistani social media leave a lot to be desired, the presence of the two biggest political parties on TikTok indicates an effort to reach out to voters where they’re concentrated. In surveys conducted by Asfandyar Mir and Niloufer Siddiqui to understand what platforms people use to access news and determine its trustworthiness, the numbers were 58pc for Facebook, 63pc WhatsApp, 47pc YouTube, 17pc Twitter and 30pc TikTok.

This change is not limited to how people consume news; it has a wider implication for Pakistan’s political landscape. “The voter is changing,” Ms Siddiqui said while explaining this trend.

While political parties with inherently weak organisational systems have relied on electables and patronage to attract votes, things have started to change. “Social media and urbanisation, severing feudal and biradri ties are changing party affiliations.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 22, 2023 at 10:27am

TikTok: The new frontier for political info-wars

https://www.dawn.com/news/1754935


And the PTI has capitalised on this.

Ms Siddiqui said the PTI also relied on electables, but it simultaneously managed to capture people’s attention with its anti-status quo and anti-corruption narrative. “The PML-N and PPP, the other two major parties, failed to catch up. They are still stuck in electable maths.”

This was helped by PTI’s openness to exploring new platforms to amplify its message. As Mr Ahad explained, the party has always been more conducive to experimenting with social media, while their rivals fear the backlash their leaders might receive on these places.

“The PTI has been dominating the narrative so much, and for so long, other parties are apprehensive in countering it,” he said.

*The number of likes, shares, comments and views are approximation as TikTok rounds off the figure after it reaches five digits

**All hashtags originally in Urdu script have been rewritten in Roman Urdu.

This story has been done in collaboration with Media Matters for Democracy.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 22, 2023 at 12:54pm

M.
@amoizmalik
While all, or may be the most, attention is still focused on Twitter, TikTok has silently become a new platfrom for political narrative warfare in Pakistan. In this longform story, I looked at the platform to see how it has turned into a battleground for

https://twitter.com/amoizmalik/status/1660552521105162240?s=20


M.
@amoizmalik
narrative warfare. Talk about the presence of political parties on the platfrom, only two --PTI and PML-N-- have an official account on the platform. Like every other platfrom, PTI is a juggernaut on the platfrom. It has three million followers



M.
@amoizmalik
compared to just 43.4K of PML-N. The average engagment shows how big, and orgnanised, PTI is on the platfrom. Till April, PTI on avg posted 29 videos per day, had over 67K avg like, 685 comments and 750 shares. In comparision, PML-N posted 1.2 videso daily on avg,


M.
@amoizmalik
with 1,192 likes, 48 comments and 22 likes. NOWHERE NEAR PTI.
As is the story on other platfroms, PTI is miles ahead in terms of how it uses TikTok to annihilate its rivals' messaging. Take the example of May 9. IK was arrested, violent protests broke out and the govt has

M.
@amoizmalik
shut Twitter. The governemnt would have thought it managed to blunt PTI's most potent weapon. But, they left one flank unguarded; TikTok. What PTI does? It takes its entire messaging game to TikTok. It went full throttle on the platfrom, putting out on avg



M.
@amoizmalik
41 videos per day between May 9 to 12. In comparision, it only posted 14 videos per day on avg from May 1 to May 8. During the time of IK's arrests, the engagement on PTI's TikTok account rose to insane levels. Check the graphs for comparision from a week ago.


M.
@amoizmalik
Over 618K avg views, over 378K avg likes, over 1,100 comments and 1,500 shares -- all numbers doubled compared to last week. So did PTI lose anything while Twitter was down? They, by all means, outsmarted the government's move.


M.
@amoizmalik
The story looks at this and compared several other activities on PTI's and PML-N's official TikTok accounts. How they post videos, how they use hashtag, what is the narrative, etc. It shows the PTI works on the TikTok like a well oiled machine, somethin PML-N clearly lacks.


M.
@amoizmalik
For this story, I talked to
@NiloSiddiqui
,
@tabinda_m
,
@talhaahad
. Their comments and input was invaluable. Also, this months-long work wouldn't have been possible without the generous support from
@asadbeyg
and his team
@mmfd_Pak

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 24, 2023 at 4:23pm

Laying the digital foundations for a brighter future

https://dailytimes.com.pk/1095721/laying-the-digital-foundations-fo...


by Khurram Sultan


The Government of Pakistan has launched the Smart Village Pakistan project with the support of Huawei to overcome the extreme disparity between the urban and rural development indicators. The Smart Village project aims to achieve digital transformation in remote rural areas by closing the gap in access to technology and services between urban and rural areas – a transformation that is made possible through Huawei’s expertise and expansion of wireless broadband network coverage.

The first village to experience the digital transformation is the Gokina Smart Village, a small hamlet near Islamabad. There, Huawei provides cutting edge technical solutions to connect the unconnected, allowing partners in education and health to serve the previously underserved community.

The Smart Village Pakistan project aims to digitally transform remote and rural communities by connecting them and empowering the citizens with better access to a range of digital services that can meaningfully improve their wellbeing and livelihoods in accordance with the government’s vision of Digital Pakistan. Reduced inequality will lead to improved well-being and access to better jobs through digital services. This approach involves a new design and implementation framework that is demand-driven, user-centric, flexible, and is focused on sustainability, scalability, and multi-sector collaboration.

Huawei continues to be the leader in Pakistan in expanding outreach in rural areas under the broader Huawei TECH4ALL commitment to enable an inclusive and sustainable digital world. Aligned with the UN SDGs and Huawei’s vision and mission, TECH4ALL is a long-term digital inclusion initiative and action plan to innovating technologies and solutions that make the world a more inclusive and sustainable space for all.

Approximately half the world population is digitally connected while the other half is not, a division that has implications that became glaring apparent during the global pandemic when digital networks and access to the internet meant continued access to fundamental rights and critical services like health and education.

TeleTaleem is a social enterprise focused on enhancing quality of education services at the grassroots level, through innovative use of technology. While TeleTaleem has reached a good mix of users in urban and rural settings – reaching out to 60 different districts across all four provinces and the AJK, covering 4,000+ schools and directly impacting skillset of more than 6,000 teachers and 1,000,000+ children, one of its proudest accomplishments is the recent partnership with Huawei and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) under the Smart Village Program.

Upon visiting the school in Gokina, TeleTaleem discovered a pressing need for science teachers, particularly for students in grades 8, 9, and 10. Specializing in the design and delivery of e-learning systems and services, using a variety of delivery mechanisms and blended learning platforms, TeleTaleem has implemented multiple interventions, covering a broad spectrum of primary to secondary school systems, teacher education and training institutions in both public and private sectors.

The solution for Gokina was TeleTaleem’s Online Teaching Model, which provides the school with two digital classrooms equipped with internet connectivity from Jazz and power backup systems. Through this setup, the school was connected with specialist science teachers based at TeleTaleem. Now, the students in Gokina are benefitting from daily science classes, including subjects like chemistry and biology, along with regular assessments of their learning activities.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 24, 2023 at 4:24pm

Laying the digital foundations for a brighter future

https://dailytimes.com.pk/1095721/laying-the-digital-foundations-fo...


by Khurram Sultan



This initiative aims to bring quality education to remote rural areas, and the foundation of innovative, tech-based solutions are digital connectivity. The Smart Village project aligns with the TeleTaleem vision to provide quality education where it is needed the most under our “Education without Boundaries” approach.


The project has received an overwhelmingly positive response from both students and teachers. The school head has been incredibly cooperative and supportive throughout the implementation of these activities. The Federal Directorate of Education, responsible for the school, and the Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training have expressed their great appreciation for the efforts of TeleTaleem, Huawei, and ITU in selecting Gokina School as a pilot site under the Smart Village program.

While the challenges of infrastructure are real, the opportunities are immense. In Pakistan, the young, underserved population spread across vast rural tracts is the ideal target and ultimate beneficiary of enhanced digitalization and increased usage of telecom services.

Around 37% of employment in Pakistan is in agricultural, forestry, or the fishery sector and COVID-19 has disrupted conventional business operations and led to closure of many traditional markets. Not only so, but 13% of the youth from these areas do not enroll in secondary school, and only 15% of households have access to a computer at home for e-learning. The literacy rate of female youth (ages 15-24) is more than 14 percent lower than male youth literacy rate. Additionally, the employment rate is around 11% higher for women than it is for men. With access to connectivity and ICT, the Smart Village Project looks to tackle all of these issues.


Inclusive digital transformation can be a crucial enabler for rural development and with Huawei laying the foundations for social enterprises and service providers to reach the unserved, the future is bright.

The author is the Director Program at TeleTaleem, a social enterprise delivering innovative solutions for improved educational services at the grassroot level.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 25, 2023 at 10:43am

Pakistan’s ‘largest’ OTT platform streams original content from Hollywood, other studios

https://www.arabnews.pk/node/2273296/pakistan


Titled SHOQ, the streaming app allows registration of up to five devices with two concurrent sessions
Pakistani Internet users can opt from various packages ranging from Rs8 per day to Rs120-299 a month
KARACHI: Pakistan’s “largest” Over-The-Top platform, SHOQ, offers an interesting lineup of original local and international shows, a Pakistani telecom official said, describing the platform as the country’s “ultimate entertainment solution.”

SHOQ is a subscription-based streaming app that works on the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) model and PTCL-provided TV dongles, enabling users to avail multi-screen services from any place, anytime through smartphones, tablets, laptops, Android Smart TVs and Android TV Boxes.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), a subsidiary of e& that was formerly known as the Etisalat Group, officially launched the platform in late January, aiming to provide a “superior” and “immersive” viewing experience to all data users in Pakistan.

SHOQ allows registration of up to five devices with two concurrent sessions at a time. It is available for all Pakistani data users on “customer-friendly” daily, weekly, and monthly bases, according to Pasha. Customers can opt from various packages ranging from Rs8 per day to Rs120-299 a month.

“We have original content with rights from Hollywood studios like Warner, Sony, etc. The content ranges from blockbuster movies to highly rated and acclaimed series,” Amir Pasha, a PTCL group director, told Arab News on Tuesday.

“We believe that SHOQ has what it takes to be the country’s ultimate entertainment solution.”

Pasha said they believed a high-quality local OTT entertainment service was much needed that was not only affordable but also customized to local tastes and preferences, given the increasing Internet penetration in Pakistan.

While the platform does not offer Indian content, the official said it did have a wide range of local and international content that was liked by the subscribers.

“Content acquisition is a continuous process to add value to the platform and for customer retention. We will continue R&D (research and development) and will bring in more content that matches the customer requirements and entertainment needs,” Pasha said.

“We are focusing on local content in addition to international content that will allow SHOQ to gain more market [share]. SHOQ penetration is on the positive growth trajectory and we believe it will take some time to strengthen our footprint across the country.”

SHOQ also hosts one hundred most-watched local and international live TV channels, Pakistani movies and originals to cater to the entertainment needs of the entire family, according to a PTCL statement.

“We are pleased to support the development of Pakistan’s largest OTT platform, powered by PTCL,” Khalifa Al-Shamsi, the CEO of e& life, said at the launch of SHOQ in January.

“We are confident that this new service will add great value to the people of Pakistan. e& will continue to support the PTCL Group, especially in its new chapter of creating a digital future that empowers every person in society to create innovative digital services and tap into new customer segments, building success upon success.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 26, 2023 at 1:28pm

USF Approves Rs. 21 Billion for New Optical Fiber and Broadband Projects


https://propakistani.pk/2022/09/25/usf-approves-rs-21-billion-for-n...


The Universal Service Fund (USF) Board has approved the award of 10 contracts worth approximately Rs. 21 billion for the unserved and under-served communities of Baluchistan, Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).


The high-speed mobile broadband projects, highways and motorways projects, and optical fiber cable projects will provide 4G LTE connectivity and backhaul connectivity to around 3.5 million people by connecting 187 Union Councils (UCs) with 1,554 kilometers (kms) of optical fiber cable and provide seamless connectivity to 622 km of unserved road segments on M-8 motorway and N-35 highway.


Additional Secretary (Incharge) IT & Telecommunication and Chairman USF Board Mohsin Mushtaq Chandna chaired the 83rd Board of Directors meeting of USF on Thursday.


While addressing the meeting, Chandna said that USF has delivered a record productive performance in the past 4 years by contracting 79 projects worth approximately Rs. 62.7 billion in subsidy. This is a testament to our absolute commitment to improving the lives and livelihoods of the unserved and underserved communities of Pakistan.

He also highlighted the importance of infrastructure, affordability, and accessibility of the internet and pledged to work with all stakeholders to achieve the vision of Digital Pakistan.

USF Chief Executive Officer Haaris Mahmood Chaudhary apprised the Board members of the progress of the current projects and the restoration of the flood-affected USF network. He said that these projects will empower around 3.3 million people living in far-flung and backward areas across Pakistan, enabling them to access e-services across various spheres, ranging from financial services like banking and loans to accessibility towards various government services and benefits.


According to the details, the Board approved the award of 5 high-speed mobile broadband contracts worth approximately Rs. 7.1 billion for providing 4G LTE services in the rural and remote districts of Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan. These projects will benefit people living in 262 unserved muazas of Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh, Multan, and Rajanpur districts in Punjab, Jamshoro in Sindh, and Barkhan, Musakhel, Sherani, and Sibi in Balochistan covering an approximate unserved area of 12,784.91 sq. km.

Furthermore, the Board also approved the award of two high-speed mobile broadband projects for National Highways and Motorways worth Rs. 6 billion for providing 4G LTE services to commuters on unserved road segments of 622.68 km on M-8 motorway and N-35 highway respectively.

Similarly, the USF Board also approved the award of three optical fiber cable projects worth approximately Rs. 7.7 billion for providing backhaul connectivity to 187 Union Councils (UCs) of Punjab and KP. Under these projects, USF will deploy a total of 1,554 km of optical fiber cable that will benefit over 3.3 million people in the districts of Attock, Sheikhupura, and Nankana Sahib in Punjab and Bannu and Lakki Marwat in KP. These projects are designed to connect 684 educational institutions, 223 government offices, and 268 health institutions along with mandatory connectivity of 408 BTS towers.

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