Comment by Riaz Haq on August 30, 2026 at 6:22pm

AI cooperation with China brings hope to Pakistan's small farmers

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/279275714/ai-cooperation-with-c...

For many small farmers in Pakistan's Punjab province, the country's most populous province, farming has always felt like a roll of the dice against the whims of the weather. But local farmers may soon see their fortunes change.

Syed Muhammad Ashiq Hussain Shah, Punjab's agriculture minister, is attending the 2026 China International Big Data Industry Expo, which runs through Sunday, in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province. He said his delegation has a clear mission: to find Chinese partners who can help bring AI-powered farming tools to millions of smallholders back home.

According to the Pakistani official, many small farmers in Punjab province lack access to reliable, timely information. Meanwhile, climate change is making weather patterns increasingly erratic, with sudden downpours, prolonged droughts and scorching heat waves adding new risks to agricultural production

Punjab's agricultural authorities are now developing an AI-powered digital monitoring network designed to deliver weather forecasts, crop monitoring and real-time data on soil, water and pest control directly to farmers.

"We want to use AI to monitor the weather, soil and water, and to digitally track crops as well," Shah said. "We also want to use AI for pest control, so that a farmer can simply send a picture of a plant and get help identifying the problem. "

"If farmers can receive this information through a digital platform, they can make better decisions and reduce losses. That is why we see AI as an important tool for improving agricultural productivity and supporting farmers in Punjab," he said.

"That is exactly why we are here -- to find partners and learn from China's experience," he added.

In fact, China and Pakistan, including Punjab, have already shared a solid foundation in agricultural cooperation. Shah said Punjab signed at least six memorandums of understanding following previous visits to China and has been actively following through on them.

Chinese companies have also played a significant role in Punjab's high-tech farm mechanization program. Shah estimated that about 90 percent of the machinery acquired under the program -- including harvesters and tractors -- came from China. Now, this partnership is evolving beyond hardware to include smart technologies and intelligence.

Ali Mustafa Dar, adviser to the chief minister of Punjab on artificial intelligence and special initiatives, observed that China does not treat AI as something separate from economic development, but integrates it across manufacturing, logistics, cities, agriculture, transport and public services.

"China thinks long term. It builds the infrastructure. It experiments and learns. And when something works, it has the capacity to take it to extraordinary scale," he said.

As China's first national comprehensive big data pilot zone, Guizhou offers precisely the kind of experience Punjab is looking for. Dar said Guizhou is particularly interesting because it demonstrates that AI begins with strong data foundations.

Guizhou is a key hub for China's national "East Data, West Computing" project. This national strategy operates similarly to a power grid, shifting the heavy data processing demands of China's economically bustling eastern coast to resource-rich western regions. Crucially, the project utilizes the western region's abundant green energy such as wind and hydropower, making it a major milestone in green technology and carbon reduction.

By late July 2026, Guizhou housed 50 key data centers, with total computing capacity reaching 176.57 EFLOPS. Nearly 98.4 percent of this capacity was dedicated specifically to AI-related computing.

Dar said he is keen to understand how Guizhou has built its data ecosystem -- from infrastructure, data centers and standards to governance, industry and the applications built on top.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 1, 2026 at 8:06pm

Pakistan to fiberise 10m homes
Sets 2029 target; fragmented networks, low FTTH threaten broadband ambitions

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2580911/pakistan-to-fiberise-10m-homes




KARACHI:
Pakistan, long criticised for inadequate public service delivery, now sees a rare opportunity to leap into modern governance through technology. But its race towards a digitally enabled future depends on whether it can overcome deep connectivity gaps, high infrastructure costs, and sluggish fibre-to-the-home penetration, as the government rolls out an ambitious National Fiberisation Plan aimed at delivering high-speed broadband to 10 million households by 2029.
While the initiative promises 100 Mbps fixed internet for every user and aims to elevate the country into the top 50 global speed rankings, experts warn that fragmented networks, limited fibre density, spectrum inefficiencies, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities could stall progress unless policy, investment, and execution align at scale.
The country is also targeting 80% fiberisation of mobile towers to enhance network capacity and reliability, and to improve Pakistan's standing in the top 50 countries on the Ookla global speed rankings.
The initiative is being led by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) in collaboration with the World Bank, as part of the Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP). The main objective of the programme is to enhance the government's capacity to deliver digitally enabled public services for citizens and businesses.


To achieve its targets, the ministry is currently seeking to hire a consultancy firm to develop a roadmap for attracting investment within the existing policy framework.
The plan will also explore how Administrative Incentive Pricing (AIP) can be used as a complementary policy tool to promote efficient spectrum use and incentivise fibre deployment for backhaul and middle-mile connectivity, particularly to support 4G densification and 5G readiness. It will also clarify the complementary roles of fibre (long-haul, middle-mile, and deep access) and spectrum (last-mile wireless), ensuring that AIP discourages spectrum hoarding while encouraging sustainable, long-term investment in fibre-based infrastructure.


Syed Muhammad Taha Owais, a fibre-optic infrastructure specialist, said demand for high-speed internet is rising sharply in urban areas for both commercial and domestic use, which could boost business productivity and output.
"Pakistan ranks among the lowest globally for internet speeds due to obsolete infrastructure and the slow adoption of new technologies, particularly FTTH (fibre-to-the-home)," he said. All stakeholders, including the government and the private sector, should fast-track fibre deployment nationwide to improve connectivity and support the digitisation of business and governance systems.
Owais, a senior official at Optix Pakistan, underscored the importance of high-speed internet, adding that the deployment of fibre optic in commercial areas and posh localities has increased the uptake of internet and increased the performance of the businesses.
At present, Pakistan has over 211,000 kilometres of deployed optical fibre, including 75,967 km of long-haul and 135,506 km of metro fibre.
"For a technopreneur, fibre is not infrastructure; it is oxygen and digital power," he said. This fiberisation plan is Pakistan's launchpad. Every startup, every smart city, every digital service depends on it.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 6, 2026 at 10:10am

PTA Introduces Facial Verification for SIM Cards to Avoid Frauds

https://www.techjuice.pk/pta-introduces-facial-verification-for-sim...

PTA Introduces Facial Verification for SIM Cards in Major Fraud Crackdown.

Facial verification will add another layer of security for new and existing SIM users. PTA is also tightening controls on SIM sellers and duplicate SIM issuance.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is launching a fresh crackdown on fraudulent telecom activities. To achieve this, the regulator is introducing facial verification for all current subscribers and those buying new SIM cards. This new system serves as an additional layer of biometric verification. Furthermore, it aims to enhance subscriber identification and authentication. Consequently, PTA expects this measure to significantly reduce the misuse of mobile connections.

 

Moreover, PTA plans to implement a centralized blacklisting system for SIM sale channels. This system will enable the regulator to take stricter action against retailers and outlets involved in irregularities. In addition, the authority is considering the rationalization of these sale channels. This move will help PTA exercise better control over the network selling and activating mobile connections. Meanwhile, the regulator is also strengthening the process for issuing duplicate SIMs. Therefore, authorities can prevent unauthorized issuance and illegal use of mobile connections.

These planned measures follow a continued campaign against fraudulent telecom activities. Previously, during the period of July 2025 to June 2026, PTA took significant actions. For instance, the regulator blocked 768 mobile numbers and 707 IMEIs. Additionally, authorities blacklisted 11 CNICs linked to fraudulent activities. During this same timeframe, the PTA issued official warnings to 2,497 subscribers.

Ultimately, these latest enforcement actions, including facial verification for SIM cards, indicate a strategic shift. PTA is now tightening controls directly at the SIM issuance and sales stage. As a result, PTA hopes to prevent the misuse of mobile connections for illegal activities. Simultaneously, this shift will strengthen the overall subscriber verification mechanism.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 23, 2026 at 8:21pm

EBANX advances emerging market infrastructure with Pakistan expansion in motion and native Apple Pay decryption
By PR Newswire

https://macaubusiness.com/ebanx-advances-emerging-market-infrastruc...


Mobile-first and a double-digit growth opportunity in Pakistan

Following the addition of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Türkiye to its footprint in 2026, EBANX is preparing its payment operations in Pakistan for the next semester. The first alternative payment methods (APMs) to be offered are the local wallets JazzCash and Easypaisa, each reporting more than 50 million users. Next will be Raast, Pakistan’s rapidly growing national instant-payment rail. Data from the State Bank of Pakistan shows that Raast transaction volume nearly doubled in a year, going from 371.2 million in Q3 FY25 to 742.1 million in Q3 FY26.

EBANX selected the country as its next frontier due to strong merchant demand and structural market complexity. According to World Data Lab (WDL) data analyzed by EBANX, Pakistan’s e-commerce spending is projected to grow at an average rate of 22% annually (2026-2030).

With this high CAGR, the country is on track to more than triple its online market size over the decade. Pakistani Gen Z (ages 15–30 in 2026), especially, is experiencing a massive digital boom. Their spending on Video Gaming, Streaming, and Social Media is projected to grow at 17% annually through 2036—but credit card ownership among this cohort is below 10%.

“Pakistan is a classic mobile-first market where smartphone ownership runs 20 to 40 percentage points ahead of card ownership. This makes local account-based payment methods, bank transfers, and digital wallets the key to winning market share,” said Eduardo de Abreu, CPO of EBANX and regional CEO of EBANX Singapore. “This payment fragmentation is challenging for global businesses, but bridging local payment infrastructure with global merchant needs is precisely what we have specialized in for over a decade.”

Since its founding in Brazil in 2012, out of the necessity of global brands to connect with consumers and businesses through the Brazilian bank slip Boleto, EBANX has gone global, offering 400+ rails, 200+ payment methods, and processing over 4 million transactions per day.

Apple Pay: EBANX decrypts in-house, so merchants don’t have to

Starting in September, EBANX is rolling out a new operating model for Apple Pay that shifts the entire token decryption layer in-house. Under this setup, EBANX receives and decrypts encrypted Apple Pay tokens directly, managing certificates, security keys, and end-to-end PCI DSS compliance within its own infrastructure rather than requiring merchants to handle decryption.

“The result is less burden for merchants and faster, safer, more seamless transaction flows, with EBANX owning the full end-to-end cardholder journey inside our acquiring stack,” explained Abreu.

Apple Pay is a tokenized digital wallet that uses a debit or credit card as the underlying payment credential. With this new offering, EBANX—the only PSP with local acquiring across all 11 Latin American and Caribbean markets where Apple Pay operates—simplifies merchants’ operations while maintaining full end-to-end PCI DSS compliance within its acquiring infrastructure.

Early production data underscores the model’s performance impact: tokenized wallet processing delivered an 11-percentage-point uplift in approval rates compared to non-tokenized card transactions, reaching 94.4%. Average Order Value (AOV) ran 23.5% higher than standard card purchases, reflecting strong alignment with high-intent digital consumers.

“We have already built a successful partnership with Apple Pay in Brazil. Now, we are taking the most sophisticated version of that architecture across Latin America, from Guatemala to Argentina, for both one-time and recurring transactions,” said Del Valle.

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