The internet users in Pakistan have been facing disruptions in their internet speeds for over a week, and the situation is still not showing any signs of recovery. A lot of e-commerce businesses operating in Pakistan have suffered considerable losses due to the internet disruption in the country. Worse, freelancing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork have tagged Pakistani users as “unavailable,” and this has caused an immense loss of clients for Pakistani service providers. However, the business community and internet service providers have reported that the government’s efforts to monitor the internet are causing internet disruption throughout the country.
As per the reports provided by the Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Wispap), the internet disruption has lowered the speed by around 30–40 percent, and it is so worse that many e-businesses are considering relocating their ventures to other countries. Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, said:
“The relevant authorities, including PTA, have been asked to inform us about the impact on data traffic in the last two weeks. Internet should never be slow; we have even been talking about bringing 5G technology to Pakistan. There is no doubt that, and conversations about higher [internet] speed are underway.”
She further stated, “There was a web-management system being operated by the government before too, which is now being upgraded. It is the right of the government to [take such measures] given the cyber security attacks that this country has to go through.”
However, users of Facebook, Instagram, and even WhatsApp have reported difficulty browsing the servers, and the social media apps have been disrupted since last week. The Senate Committee on IT, on the other hand, has directed the tech ministry to resolve the internet disruption issue within two weeks, which means that the situation could remain the same until Aug 30.
It is pertinent to mention here that Aisha Humera Chaudhary, the IT Secretary stated, “There was a disruption in services of mobile operators. It can be a technical issue that will soon be solved.”
