Is the government harming the IT industry due to its political narrative? Afnan Ullah's Statement
#internetdown #Internetoutage #firewall #mariamemon #pmshehbazsharif #sawalyehai #Senatorafnanullah
Is the government harming the IT industry due to its political narrative? Afnan Ullah's Statement
Is the government harming the IT industry due to its political narrative? Afnan Ullah's Statement
Transcript
00:00Sir, if you wanted to test a software firewall, why didn't you trust them?
00:06Why didn't you tell them that this is the phase, it will take so long, this is the method?
00:10I mean, they have such genuine concerns, how will they recover?
00:14Will it be written in your legacy that the IT industry will be ruined?
00:19Look, the topic of reputational loss is very genuine.
00:24The reason is that if you want to take a business from someone sitting outside,
00:28now you have a meeting with him, in which you have to finalize the details, and you miss that meeting.
00:32Or he has sent you messages on WhatsApp, that send me these things.
00:36And you didn't get it, you got it, so you can't open it.
00:39I mean, there is a problem for you.
00:41Did PMS tell you? They don't know, someone is misguiding them.
00:44I have raised this issue a lot on relevant quarters, and we are pushing it a lot.
00:50More improvement can be brought in this, and I will raise it in our next meeting,
00:56that if we give a schedule, that if there is such a thing in the future,
01:00then we give a schedule, like there is also a schedule for load shedding.
01:03So at least they can plan, that this issue will be on time,
01:08so we can basically not do it on that day, or not do it on that hour.
01:12How will they do monitoring?
01:14For example, you have to regulate all the data, you do load shedding in it,
01:17that we will regulate the data for 2 hours a day, not 2 hours.
01:20I am saying that if such a requirement comes in the future, there is no requirement now.
01:24But if a system is down, if there is an issue of submarine cable,
01:29there can be many other issues.
01:31So we should make a procedure for it, I will propose it in the next meeting,
01:35that we should make a procedure, so that the people who are working,
01:38can also do their work, and the other people should also not be affected.
01:41Sir, political, because there is a political angle to it,
01:43it is obvious that you have a problem with social media,
01:45the political narrative.
01:46So in order to curtail that political narrative,
01:49you are not doing any irreparable damage to the IT industry, God forbid?
01:55See, God willing, I hope, because we have been assured,
01:58that the matter will be resolved in the next 3 days.
02:01Today it was much better, if you check.
02:03How will it be?
02:04Sir, please tell us a little, that the people who are listening,
02:06maybe their connection is affected by their businesses,
02:08how will it be fixed, how is it being sorted out?
02:10See, it is obvious that in its implementation,
02:13they have to put some filters,
02:16actually this is done by the firewall, deep packet inspection.
02:19In deep packet inspection, the payload that is being moved,
02:23they go and inspect it, to see what is actually inside it,
02:27and it is obvious that you have to put a very big setup,
02:30and get it inspected, that is why the matter is probably slowing down,
02:34and you have to put its filters along with these things,
02:37so that you can specify what kind of data you want.
02:40Are there more firewalls?
02:41Because Shaza Khawaja Sahiba said that there are firewalls all over the world,
02:44apart from China and Russia, in the rest of the free world, in America.
02:47Yes, yes.
02:48Where ever you have a major, in western countries.
02:50It is there in America, it is there in the UK,
02:52because we have spoken there, they are saying that it is not there.
02:55No, no, I am telling you about the UK,
02:59I have studied there, I have done my job there,
03:02I have started a business there,
03:04it is there, their GCHQ is there, it murders.
03:07Similarly, there are more,
03:11if its implementation would have been better,
03:14then it would have been seamless, we would not have come to know.
03:16So whose responsibility is that of the Ministry of IT?
03:18Somebody has to take responsibility.
03:19No, no, we are doing it,
03:21we will raise it in the next meeting,
03:23that we will give a procedure for it.
03:24You are saying a vague thing,
03:25earlier you were not accepting that there are firewalls,
03:27now you have accepted that there are firewalls.
03:28But I have given you in the meeting.
03:30You are very clear, that is why we have called you,
03:32because you are giving us a very clear view,
03:34but it is in front of you, you are not accepting it,
03:36you have accepted it, you have told it,
03:38on that basis I am asking you a question,
03:40the loss of reputation, is it recoverable from here,
03:42or will it take time?
03:44Look, whenever there is a reputation loss,
03:47it takes time,
03:49it will not happen that tomorrow you will go and say,
03:51that I have fixed it.
03:53Your old customers,
03:55maybe they have a relationship with you,
03:59but especially the freelancers,
04:01if you see,
04:03they are doing small jobs,
04:05they have an engagement of 2 hours,
04:09or an engagement of 2 days,
04:11they come to a market place,
04:13you bid, they take it,
04:15so when that work happens,
04:17if there is a reputation loss,
04:19it is not that easy to come back.
04:21The second thing is,
04:23where we talk,
04:27that we are giving managed services on the back end,
04:29or there are contact centers,
04:32I don't know to what extent they have been impacted,
04:34if the customer experience of their end users is affected,
04:38then again,
04:40you have to give them that confidence.
04:42If you go to a restaurant,
04:44and if you get a wrong meal there,
04:46then you don't go to that restaurant again.
04:48But this future forecast,
04:50do you think it is a one time issue,
04:52or because you have your projections,
04:54after all your businesses,
04:56now you will add that risk factor,
04:58what do you think, is it a one time issue?
05:00Look, there are interruptions,
05:02in technology,
05:04I have a background in technology,
05:06so I will say that you can never say that
05:08there will never be an interruption.
05:10If I take a recent example,
05:12and I am not justifying any action,
05:14but you know,
05:16because of Microsoft,
05:18there has been an impact all over the world.
05:20All we request,
05:22and we have talked about this
05:24with Pasha's firm,
05:26if something like this is happening in the future,
05:28then better planning,
05:30and maybe you can sandbox it,
05:32and do some testing,
05:34and bring the stakeholders
05:36in a proper way,
05:38with confidence.
05:40Did anyone engage you before the fireball?
05:42Did you know about this?
05:44At least as an industry,
05:46generally we did not know,
05:48if you see in the last 8-10 days,
05:50generally people
05:52keep airing that this issue is coming,
05:54so as such,
05:56we did not have any information.
05:58So before that,
06:00no one engaged you?
06:02At least in this case,
06:04we are engaged,
06:06as an industry representative,
06:08we are engaged with the government,
06:10I have talked to you about many things,
06:12that we work with the government
06:14on tech destination,
06:16we are not involved in this.
06:18To be very honest,
06:20this is a very simple question,
06:22in the government,
06:24does anyone have any doubt,
06:26about the level of testing failure,
06:28after which people are shouting,
06:30or they are seeing it from a political angle,
06:32that it happens politically,
06:34like political collateral damage,
06:36this happens.
06:38In this, the government is looking
06:40at this issue very seriously,
06:42and we are trying very hard
06:44to resolve this issue as soon as possible.
06:46Let's call them and ask them.
06:48I have agreed to this,
06:50I am saying that in the next meeting,
06:52there should be a process,
06:54if this work would have been done
06:56according to the schedule,
06:58then there wouldn't have been so much shouting.
07:00Everyone would have managed
07:02according to their own schedule.
07:04So we will keep our recommendations,
07:06and there is a lot of awareness
07:08on the level of the government,
07:10because there is a lot of reaction
07:12from everywhere,
07:14so we want to take it forward
07:16in a better way,
07:18and of course we don't want,
07:20as you know,
07:223G and 4G didn't exist in this country,
07:24so after the market opened,
07:26businesses started,
07:28otherwise there was no business scene.
07:30But this is your legacy,
07:32in which freelancers and tech companies
07:34are leaving the country.
07:36We will hold you accountable
07:38to your word,
07:40we will keep talking about this issue,
07:42because these young people,
07:44especially the young people
07:46who work in the tech industry,
07:48in Pakistan,
07:50we know the situation of the economy,
07:52we know the situation of the job sector,
07:54how many new jobs are coming,
07:56we all know that this is their fault.
07:58These are the people who are sitting at home,
08:00using the internet on their own,
08:02creating opportunities for themselves.
08:04So if the government can't create opportunities,
08:06then at least don't snatch it from the children
08:08who are working hard.