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Thousands of Pakistani livelihoods will be affected if YouTube banned — IT minister

This photograph taken on July 24, 2020 shows a child surfing YouTube in Pakistan for kids content. (AN photo)
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Updated 25 July 2020
Khurshid Ahmed
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Thousands of Pakistani livelihoods will be affected if YouTube banned — IT minister

  • Government sets $5 billion IT export target for next three years, Syed Amin ul Haque says
  • Prime minister orders setting up committee ‘within 24 hours’ to work on minimizing IT sector taxes
Updated 25 July 2020
Khurshid Ahmed

KARACHI: Pakistan’s minister for information technology said on Thursday the livelihoods of thousands of Pakistanis would be affected if the Google-owned video sharing website YouTube was banned.
This week, the Supreme Court hinted at a possible ban on YouTube over ‘objectionable’ content.
Pakistan banned access to YouTube in September 2012 after an anti-Islam film uploaded to the site sparked violent protests. The ban was lifted in 2016 but digital rights activists and IT experts say tens of millions of rupees in revenue was lost due to the nearly four-year blockade.
“As far as YouTube is concerned, I understand thousands of people’s livelihood is associated with it,” Syed Amin ul Haque, minister for IT and telecommunication, told Arab News in an interview. “It is a source of education, learning and business for people. I think YouTube is a good channel and its activities could be taken forward positively.”
“Banning anything means obstructing its growth,” Haque added. “Ban is not the solution to the problems, instead it [problems] could be improved through filtration.”




This photograph released on April 22, 2020 by Pakistan's Ministry Of IT & Telecom shows federal minister for IT and telecommunication Syed Amin ul Haque in his office. (Photo courtesy: @MoitOfficial/Twitter)

Pakistan’s telecommunication regulator banned live-streaming app Bigo over “vulgar content” this week and issued a “final warning” to Chinese video sharing platform Tiktok on similar grounds. On Friday, the regulator said it had decided to retain a July 1 ban on the popular online game PUBG, though the Islamabad High Court subsequently asked it to lift the block.
Pakistani PM’s adviser on digitization, Tania Aidrus, has also said banning content was “not a solution.” 
“The 3 years when YouTube was banned in Pakistan it held back our content creator ecosystem which has just started to flourish now, creating employment opportunities for thousands,” Aidrus wrote on Twitter on July 22. “Our focus should be on ensuring better curation of content through policy and dialogue.”
“Brute force measures like banning will not serve any purpose and will hold us back from achieving the vision of #DigitalPakistan,” she added.




This file photo taken on April 03, 2018 shows YouTube's headquarters office in San Bruno, California. (AFP)

Pakistan’s IT industry is fast growing. According to a June performance report by the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), an organization that works under the Ministry of IT, export remittances from IT & IT enabled Services (ITeS) surged to $1.003 billion, a jump of 23.42 percent, in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2019-20 (July – April).
In the July-May period of the outgoing fiscal year, ITeS export remittances rose to $1.11 billion, 21 percent higher than the previous year, the IT minister said.
For the next three years, he added, Pakistan had set a five billion dollar target for IT exports.
“We have tried to set a IT export target for the next 3 years, which is the remaining term of our government. It will be increased from the $1.11 billion to $5 billion,” Haque said. “We are confident that the target will be achieved.”
He said the government was taking several measures to enhance IT exports, including reconstituting the Pakistan Software Export Board and improving the tax regime.
Pakistan has exempted software exports from taxes until 2025 but local general sales tax on services has been set at 13-17%.
“Taxation is the biggest issue and for that we have talked to all concerned departments,” the minister said. “Today [Thursday] we had a meeting with the prime minister [Imran Khan] who has issued directives for constitution of an inter-ministerial committee within 24 hours so taxes could be minimized for ease of local industry.”
Shehryar Hydri, an IT consultant and member of the central executive committee of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), said while India, Bangladesh and Philippines provided wide ranging support to their IT sectors, the Pakistani government “fails to support the export potential of this booming sector that is growing 10-15% every year.”
He said Pakistan’s export figure was much higher than the official $1.11 billion, and could be as high as $3 billion, which would double in the next five years.
“Pakistani IT professionals earn millions of dollars which are not reflected as IT exports mainly due to lack of proper documentations at banks, where they are simply counted as remittances,” Hydri said “The IT industry will double in size over the next 5 years, crossing $4 billion, without any major government support.”
Pakistan’s main IT export destination is the United States, where 50% of its software goes. The Middle East gets around 10 percent.
“Major animations and games studios in the GCC [Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf] market are outsourcing work to their Pakistani partners and several large IT firms have entered Saudi Arabia and other markets for major technology projects,” Hydri said.
“Due to the close proximity of the market, Pakistan makes an ideal and cost effective partner for the digital transformation of the Middle East market”.

Topics: Pakistan Youtube social media

Pakistan seeks fresh bids for PIA stake sale by June 3

Updated 6 sec ago
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Pakistan seeks fresh bids for PIA stake sale by June 3

  • The government aims to sell as much as 100 percent shares of the airline after a failed attempt last year
  • It may offer incentives like tax exemption on aircrafts purchase and liability transfers to attract investors
Updated 6 sec ago
Ismail Dilawar

KARACHI: The government on Thursday invited expressions of interest from potential bidders by June 3 to sell its stake in Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), in line with the International Monetary Fund’s requirement to privatize loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs), according to a notice on the privatization ministry’s website.
The fresh bids have been called a week after the Privatization Commission Board on April 17 approved pre-qualification criteria for selecting prospective buyers for the divestment of the government’s 51 to 100 percent shares in Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Ltd. (PIACL).
“In the last financial year (FY24), PIA served approximately 4 million passengers across 30 destinations, carrying out 268 flights per week,” the ministry said in the notice aimed at attracting investors.
This marks Pakistan’s second attempt to raise funds through the privatization of the national carrier, which earlier this month reported its first operational profit of $33.48 million in over two decades.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s previous attempt to offload a 60 percent stake in the airline failed last year, attracting only a single bid from a real estate firm that quoted well below the asking price of over $300 million.
In a bid to avoid a repeat, the government said it may offer prequalified bidders incentives such as exemption from sales tax on the induction of aircraft through lease or purchase and additional support to improve PIA’s balance sheet, including indemnification, transfer of certain liabilities and coverage for tax and legal claims, according to the notice.
Pakistan, which has repaid most of its $26 billion in external debt this year through an IMF loan and billions of dollars in rollovers from allies such as China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, had to shift nearly all of PIA’s legacy debt to the government’s books after bidder concerns derailed the previous privatization attempt.
The cash-strapped South Asian nation also plans to privatize PIA’s Roosevelt Hotel Corporation in New York.
The privatization board last week finalized its recommendations on the transaction structure, which will be presented to the Cabinet Committee on Privatization for approval.
The ministry added that demand in Pakistan’s under-served aviation market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 6.2 percent over the next four years through FY29.
 

Topics: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) PIA privatization bidding

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Pakistan’s bonds dive as tensions rise with India

Updated 3 min 4 sec ago
Reuters
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Pakistan’s bonds dive as tensions rise with India

  • The 2036 maturity fell the most, shedding over 4 cents to be bid at 74 cents on the dollar
  • Tensions escalate with India following worst attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir in years
Updated 3 min 4 sec ago
Reuters

LONDON: Pakistan’s dollar-denominated government bonds dropped more than 4 cents on Thursday, Tradeweb data showed, as tensions with neighboring India escalated.

The 2036 maturity fell the most, shedding over 4 cents to be bid at 74 cents on the dollar.

Gunmen on Tuesday killed 26 people in Indian Kashmir, the worst attack on civilians in the country in nearly two decades.

Indian police on Thursday said two of the three suspected militants “involved in” the attack were Pakistani nationals, and the country suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, a move Pakistan called an act of “water warfare.” 

Topics: Pakistan economy

Pakistan and India hold high-level huddles as ties plummet following deadly attack

Updated 24 min 5 sec ago
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Pakistan and India hold high-level huddles as ties plummet following deadly attack

  • Gunmen killed 26 men at tourist site in Pahalgam area of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday
  • India alleges cross-border involvement, suspends water treaty, closes only land crossing between the neighbors
Updated 24 min 5 sec ago
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan convened a meeting of its National Security Committee (NSC) while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for a meeting with all opposition parties on Thursday, as relations between the nuclear-armed rivals plummeted following a deadly militant attack in Kashmir.

On Tuesday, gunmen killed 26 men at a tourist site in the Pahalgam area of Indian-administered Kashmir in the worst attack on civilians in the country in nearly two decades. Speaking to media on Wednesday evening, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said there was cross-border involvement in the attack and New Delhi would suspend a six-decade-old river-sharing treaty as well as close the only land crossing between the neighbors.

India would also pull out its defense attaches in Pakistan and reduce staff size at its mission in Islamabad to 30 from 55, Misri said.

India has summoned the top diplomat in the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi, Indian media reported on Thursday, to give notice that all defense advisers in the Pakistani mission were persona non grata and given a week to leave, one of the measures Misri announced on Wednesday.

A man jogs past policemen standing outside the gate of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, India, on April 24, 2025. (REUTERS)

In Islamabad, a meeting of the National Security Committee began on Thursday afternoon to finalize the country’s response to New Delhi’s escalatory actions.

“The meeting will be attended by senior civil and military leadership to deliberate upon internal and external situation arising after the Pahalgam false flag operation,” state-run Radio Pakistan reported, implying that the attack was committed by India itself with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on Islamabad. 

Ahead of the meeting, Pakistan denounced India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty as an act of “water warfare,” with Pakistan’s Power Minister Awais Leghari writing on X:

“Every drop is ours by right, and we will defend it with full force — legally, politically and globally.”

The Indus water treaty, mediated by the World Bank and signed in 1960, split the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbors and regulated the sharing of water. It had withstood two wars between the neighbors since then and severe strains in ties at other times. 

The treaty is critical for Pakistan, a lower-riparian state whose food security and agricultural productivity depend on consistent access to these waters, especially as the country faces worsening climate vulnerability and erratic monsoon cycles.

“ENDS OF THE EARTH”

Diplomatic relations between neighboring Pakistan and India were weak even before the latest measures were announced as Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and not posted its own ambassador in New Delhi after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir in 2019.

India and Pakistan control separate parts of Kashmir and both claim it in full.

India has often accused Pakistan of involvement in an insurgency in Kashmir, but Islamabad says it only offers diplomatic and moral support to Kashmiris in their struggle for self-determination.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since the uprising began in 1989, but it has tapered off in recent years and tourism has surged in the scenic region.

Police in India’s Kashmir published notices on Thursday naming three suspected militants “involved in” Tuesday’s attack and announced rewards for information leading to their arrest.

Two of the three suspected militants are Pakistani nationals, the notices said.

Modi, in his first speech since the attack in the Himalayan region, vowed on Thursday to punish all those responsible.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” the Indian prime minister said. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”

– With inputs from Reuters

Topics: Pakistan India Ties

India PM vows to pursue Kashmir attackers to ‘ends of the Earth’

Updated 56 min 51 sec ago
AFP
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India PM vows to pursue Kashmir attackers to ‘ends of the Earth’

  • Modi’s statement comes after 26 people were shot dead at the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam
  • He promised to make the perpetrators ‘pay beyond their imagination’ in a speech to a crowd
Updated 56 min 51 sec ago
AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed on Thursday to punish all those responsible for a gruesome attack in Kashmir that killed 26 men.
“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” he said in his first speech since Tuesday’s attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”
The shooting in the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam was the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory since 2000.
Of the men killed, 26 were Indian and one was Nepali.
India accused Islamabad on Wednesday of supporting “cross-border terrorism” and downgraded ties with its neighbor with a raft of diplomatic measures.
Pakistan has denied any role in the Pahalgam attack.
Modi, who was speaking in Bihar state to launch development projects, first led two minutes of silence in memory of those killed.
“I say this unequivocally: whoever has carried out this attack, and the ones who devised it, will be made to pay beyond their imagination,” he said, speaking in Hindi in front of a large crowd.
“They will certainly pay. Whatever little land these terrorists have, it’s time to reduce it to dust. The willpower of 1.4 billion Indians will break the backbone of these terrorists.”
He finished his speech with rare comments in English, directing them to an audience abroad.
“Terrorism will not go unpunished,” Modi said. “Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done.”
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full but governing separate portions of it.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt in Kashmir for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation.

Topics: Narendar Modi Pahalgam attack Indian Occupied Kashmir

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Punjab to track listed extremists with GPS devices amid rising militant violence in Pakistan

Updated 24 April 2025
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Punjab to track listed extremists with GPS devices amid rising militant violence in Pakistan

  • The province’s home department has approved the deployment of 1,500 tracking devices in the first phase
  • The decision will help enable round-the-clock surveillance of Fourth Schedule individuals with tracking bands
Updated 24 April 2025
Usama Iqbal Khawaja

ISLAMABAD: Amid an uptick in militant attacks in Pakistan, authorities in Punjab have approved the use of electronic tracking devices to monitor individuals listed under the country’s Fourth Schedule as security risks, the provincial home department said on Thursday.
The Fourth Schedule of Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act includes the names of individuals suspected of involvement in militant or sectarian violence. Those placed on the list are subjected to intense scrutiny and movement restrictions.
Under the new policy, GPS-enabled tracking bands will be attached to these individuals, allowing round-the-clock monitoring of their movements.
“This is a major decision aimed at enhancing surveillance using globally recognized practices,” the Punjab Home Department said in a statement, adding that new devices equipped with advanced micro-tracking chips would also be imported.
The devices will be distributed among the province’s key security agencies, including the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Crime Control Department and the Parole Department.
According to the statement, a high-level meeting chaired by Punjab Home Secretary Noor-ul-Amin Mengal approved the deployment of 1,500 tracking devices in the first phase.
Of these, 900 will be allocated to the CTD, 500 to the Crime Control Department and 100 to the Parole Department.
The decision follows expert recommendations advocating continuous surveillance of high-risk individuals and the adoption of internationally accepted tools for law enforcement and counterterrorism.
The development comes amid a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan. While such violence has largely remained confined to the two western provinces bordering Afghanistan, Punjab, the country’s most populous region, also remains vulnerable, with militants in the past targeting cities like Lahore and Rawalpindi.
 

Topics: Police reforms Counter Terrorism Department Punjab government

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