Is PMLN govt's only solution to every problem shutting down internet?
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00:00There are a lot of people in our country who are dependent on the internet only because they want to spread the message.
00:06But there is also a group that is growing, whose entire business, existence, job and existence is dependent on the internet.
00:15And what is it? And how is it affecting? Let's take a look at this part of the program.
00:20Patients pay a price for the slowdown of the internet in this country.
00:25This is how patients face difficulties.
00:27Due to the rapid decline in the internet service in the country, patients from remote areas in the city hospitals complain of getting reports late.
00:37So, first of all, these patients have a problem with this.
00:40Foodpanda and other such day-to-day people who are delivering something, whether it is a parcel or other things, because now it is the era of e-commerce, they are affected by this.
00:51There was a story in Independent Urdu, in which a 25-year-old foodpanda rider, Amir, a day-to-day worker, said that he used to set up a day-to-day for Rs. 2000 in normal days.
01:00But due to the slowdown of the internet, he has been setting up a day-to-day for Rs. 500 to Rs. 800 for many days.
01:05In which Rs. 400 is spent on petrol and he is not able to earn anything by saving it.
01:10Then apart from this, the things that people sell online, there are women in many, there are food businesses, there are cosmetic businesses.
01:18All these are affected by this.
01:20Because people's business is directly related to various social media apps.
01:24And then it is also related to the distribution of the internet.
01:28There are 25 lakh freelancers in this country whose employment is affected by this.
01:33The Internet Service Provider Association has stated that if the internet in the country is shut down or the internet is slow, 25 lakh freelancers can be unemployed.
01:43And what do the freelancers themselves say?
01:45They say that we are suffering a loss personally, but the government is suffering a loss in this.
01:49Because, of course, Zara-e-Mubadala has to come into this country.
01:52Pakistan has credibility.
01:54If we want to expand our IT industry, then if we have bad reviews, internet unavailability problems, then business will not come to Pakistan.
02:01So whether it is any other country, whether it is Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or any other region,
02:05which is cheaper labor and has better internet, it will go to them.
02:10It is a loss of $1 million.
02:12These are the figures of PASHA.
02:14And what does the Pakistan Software House Association say?
02:18They say that shutting down the internet for an hour is a loss of $1 million to the IT industry.
02:23According to Sajjad Mustafa, the IT service export is being destroyed due to the internet shortage and the non-issue.
02:28And foreign customers are losing confidence in the IT sector of Pakistan.
02:32If foreign customers turn to IT services from another country, then it becomes difficult to bring them back.
02:38According to the NetBlocks, a financial loss assessment agency,
02:42shutting down the internet in Pakistan for an hour is a loss of $2.2 million.
02:47According to last year's estimate, shutting down 3G and 4G services is a loss of 1.3 billion rupees per day.
02:54Due to the internet shortage and other restrictions, many Pakistani companies have shifted their offices to other countries.
03:0155% of Pakistan's IT exports to the US and 20% to Europe.
03:05While the rest of the customers are from Asia and the Middle East.
03:08According to PASHA, the government should adopt the same IT security system in the country,
03:12which is adopted in the US and other European countries.
03:14Because most of the business comes from those countries.
03:16PASHA has demanded that governments should refrain from following the map of countries such as North Korea in terms of internet.
03:22Well, one thing is that you are slowing down the internet, but at least take responsibility for it.
03:28There should be some clarity and transparency.
03:30In any case, there are committees in our parliament.
03:33When there is a debate there, they keep putting pressure on each other.
03:36This is a very interesting debate. Listen to this.
03:38On 5th and 6th December, under the leadership of Senator Palwasha Khan,
03:42there is a meeting of the IT and Telecom Committee of the Senate,
03:45in which the rulers give their answers about the continued internet shortage across the country.
03:50What are those answers?
03:51In the meeting, when the Chairman Committee, Palwasha Khan, raised the question that whatever steps the IT Ministry takes,
03:56that responsibility is put on the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
03:58we do not understand why we have IT in the market.
04:01At that time, the Minister of Internal Affairs said that social media has to be controlled due to security issues.
04:06In this matter, we are standing with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
04:09We are trying to minimize the impact on the IT industry.
04:13Chairman PTA, Fizur Rehman, said that there is no policy on reducing the internet speed.
04:17If there is any policy in this regard, then it should be asked from the government.
04:20But we have not slowed down because of the internet VPN.
04:24So they have put it on the government. We have nothing to do with it.
04:26During the meeting, the Minister of State, Shaza Fatima, raised the issue of national security, terrorism and fake news
04:33on the questions raised by the committee on the internet.
04:36But she could not give a clear answer.
04:39JIO's Senator, Kamran Murtaza, raised the question that is national security only a matter of Pakistan?
04:44Isn't this a problem in India?
04:46During the meeting, the IT Ministry, PTA, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the rulers
04:50kept putting the responsibility of the speed of the internet on each other.
04:55On this, the chairperson of the committee, Palwash Khan, instructed all the relevant rulers
04:59to present a solution to this issue in the next meeting of the committee.
05:03Shaza Fatima said something very interesting in this committee.
05:06She said that we are talking to Starlink and trying to bring it to Pakistan.
05:10And the situation is that there is an ex-ban in Pakistan.
05:14They are talking to Starlink.
05:16There is an ex-ban since 8th February.
05:18Elon Musk is the owner of the ex-ban.
05:21Starlink is also the owner of the ex-ban.
05:23And Shaza Fatima gives an explanation on how to stop the ex-ban.
05:27Only 2% of the people use it.
05:29It doesn't make much difference.
05:31I will say one thing about the ex-ban.
05:33In any case, the ex-ban is to stop freedom of speech.
05:39In Pakistan, less than 2% of the people use the ex-ban.
05:43If there was freedom of speech, then Facebook, TikTok, which is used by the majority of our people,
05:49would have been banned.
05:51But the ex-ban has other issues.
05:55Irfan Malik is a data scientist.
05:57He runs a tech company.
05:59He is the CEO of Zevin Solutions.
06:02I hope I am pronouncing it right.
06:04Thank you very much, Mr. Irfan.
06:05You have already participated in our program.
06:07It is being said that if you want to find a solution,
06:10you should look at the European countries.
06:12If there are security concerns or other issues in Pakistan,
06:14you should find a solution.
06:16What are the existing models?
06:19If you want to regulate, but you don't want to stop it.
06:23If you have a problem with VPN, but you don't want to let it affect your business.
06:27Are there any successful models in the world that Pakistan can adopt?
06:31Because we don't have a model to stop everything.
06:36Look, I am going to tell you one thing.
06:39You are live right now.
06:41And those who are listening, go and try it right now.
06:44Let's assume that VPN is being restricted for national security,
06:51to control social media.
06:53There is a firewall.
06:55Then a process was established by the PTA.
06:57And it was announced that you register.
07:00This is the process.
07:02As a good Pakistani, we adopted that process.
07:06We went to the PTA website and registered.
07:08Now you go and register and log in.
07:10It won't happen.
07:11They say it will happen in 6 to 8 hours.
07:13It's been two weeks for me.
07:15Exactly 8 to 10 days ago, I recorded a video and took up this matter.
07:19Then some PTA people reached out to me.
07:21It's been two weeks.
07:23Before coming to your program, I tried to log in right now.
07:27I am not able to log in.
07:29I am not able to reset my password.
07:31And the stupidity of technology is to the extent that
07:35if you send an email, they will tell you that they have reset the password.
07:38And the email won't go.
07:40It won't go in spam either.
07:41Now tell me, if you take a small process,
07:45a fresh graduate of a university,
07:47and assign this work to him,
07:49he will do this work in 3 to 4 hours.
07:51At least log in.
07:53On the one hand, they are asking you to register.
07:55On the other hand, registration is stopped.
07:57As of now, go and try it right now.
08:00Registration is not happening.
08:01What process are you talking about?
08:03How will the matter be fixed?
08:05Let's assume that for a while,
08:06VPN registration is very important.
08:08But registration is also closed.
08:09Now you tell me, whatever you are hearing, what to do?
08:12How to run a business?
08:14How to stop your client?
08:15And it takes 5 to 10 years to make a client.
08:18It takes 5 to 5 years to gain the client's trust.
08:21And it doesn't take 5 days.
08:22He leaves us and goes.
08:24Who will recover for 5 years?
08:25Because we are calculating the upcoming loss.
08:28In the last 48 hours,
08:31more than 1000 people have been terminated
08:34who are among my acquaintances.
08:36They are from my circle.
08:37The companies that I know,
08:39they have made layoffs.
08:411000 families have become unemployed in 48 hours.
08:44Because they are not getting work.
08:46They are not able to pay their salaries.
08:47They are making layoffs.
08:48No one realizes this.
08:50And the statement I am hearing,
08:52I have no words.
08:54But it seems like
08:56they don't even know what they are doing.
08:58So what is the solution?
09:00I am asking because this is the situation.
09:02They are saying,
09:04what is the way to work around it?
09:06This is what I was asking.
09:08See, it is very simple.
09:10How are you guys doing it?
09:14How are we doing it?
09:15Now we are on the second VPN from the first VPN,
09:18and on the third VPN from the second VPN.
09:20And we pray that it works.
09:21Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
09:23There are 4, 5, 6 internets.
09:24Sometimes on which internet?
09:25When they contacted me,
09:27they said,
09:28you give your static IP,
09:30we will whitelist it.
09:31Or you give your device number,
09:34we will whitelist it.
09:36Which is technically not possible.
09:37I use 4 devices.
09:39150-200 people work with me.
09:41If a person gives 2 devices per person,
09:43how will they register?
09:44Simple.
09:45You whitelist the VPNs.
09:47And announce that this is the VPN.
09:49Smoothen their whitelisting process.
09:51I am not able to sign up yet.
09:53Smoothen it.
09:54We are whitelisting the VPN.
09:56Plus, why don't we make our own VPN?
09:58And if we whitelist the VPN
10:00and make an agreement with them,
10:01and say that the VPN provider
10:03will provide all our logs,
10:05this in itself is a security breach.
10:08Thank you very much.