Senate Standing Committee on Information and Technology on Thursday across PakistanNetternet And has asked for a report on the financial losses caused by the slowdown of social media applications.
On the other hand, Minister of State for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja has expressed ignorance about the installation of firewall.
Inside the country today in the meeting of the committee chaired by Chairperson Senator Palusha Khan Internet service affected Speaking about the incident, Senator Afnanullah said, ‘Media downloading or uploading on the social networking website WhatsApp is not happening, leaving several e-commerce forums.’
Senator Humayun Mohmand said that the government has ‘destroyed people’s jobs. Don’t invest in the first place, the whole business will be destroyed in this way.’
To this, the IT secretary replied, ‘This is a problem with networks, not Wi-Fi.’
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) officials said: ‘We have not received any complaints regarding internet service.’
Secretary IT Ayesha Humira said ‘This is a disruption in the service of mobile operators, there may be a technical problem which will be resolved soon.
‘We are collecting data from mobile operators, will provide details in two weeks.’
Senator Afnanullah said, “Currently, freelancers have lost 500 million dollars in business. It cannot be said that security has been achieved by shutting down the Internet service.”
Secretary IT said that ‘this problem will not last long, the problem of internet will be solved soon.’
The committee later sought a report detailing the impact of internet service across the country and the damage caused by slow internet and social networking websites in two weeks.
Minister of State Shaza Fatima said in a conversation with Independent Urdu after the meeting that the ministry has asked the PTA for a report on the slowness of the internet in the country and has asked the relevant institutions to report the impact on data traffic in the last two weeks. If there are, that information should be provided.
“The internet should never be slow, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. We are talking about five G’s.
In response to a question related to the firewall, the Minister of State said, “Look at the cyber security attacks on this country, these attacks are happening at the international level.”
“As these threats continue to grow, the government must have a better capacity to deal with them.” Facts will tell you how many cyber attacks happen on Pakistan and how to stop them.
When asked about the installation of the firewall, he replied that he did not know about the installation of the firewall, PTA knows about it.
Decreased internet speed
Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (WSPAP) says that internet speed has dropped by 30 to 40 percent in the last few weeks.
Most internet problems are reported in other cities including Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Islamabad and Multan.
The organization warned that internet conditions have deteriorated to such an extent that many businesses are forced to consider moving to other countries to operate.
According to PTA’s 2022 to 2023 annual report, there are 18.97 million Internet mobile users in the country while the number of broadband subscribers is 12.69 million.
‘Personal Data Protection Bill’
During the meeting, the ‘Personal Data Protection Bill 2023’ related to preventing data from being made public and shared was also discussed.
Officials of the IT Ministry while giving a briefing said that the Data Protection Bill was being consulted for a long time which was completed two months ago in the month of June.
Minister of State for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja said the Personal Data Protection Bill is a sensitive bill as it involves international stakeholders like Google, Meta, X and Amazon.
The staff of the ministry has said that this bill will be prepared by August 20. Stakeholders have asked to show it to them before it is tabled in Parliament.
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Officials of the ministry said that in the earlier bill, there was a word about processing, while the new bill, which was made in the year 2023, has included data security provisions.
Talking about the data of the companies, the officials said that the companies will be required to register with the commission. Companies are afraid of keeping data in Pakistan, 2023 bill was shared and consulted with 100 local and international companies.
According to officials, stakeholders demanded access to data of children up to 13 years of age, but the ministry has asked for access to data of persons up to 18 years of age.
Senator Anusha Rahman said that the age limit in the European Union law is only 18 years, we do not need to listen to the stakeholders. In the EU, customer data can only be kept for two years.’
Officials said that ‘in case of violation of this proposed law, a fine of one percent of gross revenue or up to two hundred thousand dollars has been set, which the stakeholders object to as being too high. The proposed law will prohibit keeping data servers in Pakistan.
Officials said the law would prevent other companies, including Google, from making such data public.
Later, the committee recommended to increase the penalty rate to one percent of revenue and not to provide the data of persons below 18 years of age to the stakeholders.
Secretary IT Ayesha Humira said that the work on this bill has been completed, it is hoped that this bill will be approved by the cabinet soon.
Later, the committee members recommended that the draft bill be submitted to the committee instead of the cabinet for approval.
The committee has called for a nationwide network quality survey on the ‘problems of non-availability and malfunction’ of mobile network in different areas of Balochistan province in the next meeting.
Fear of 30 million dollar loss to Pakistani economy
Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said in a press release on Thursday that internet shutdowns due to firewall implementation could cost the Pakistani economy up to $300 million.
Ali Ehsan, senior vice-chairman of the association, said that due to the firewall, the internet is already disconnected for long periods and the performance of VPNs has deteriorated, which threatens to completely stop business activities.
‘These disruptions are not merely annoying but a direct, tangible and aggressive attack on the viability of the industry. Estimates of catastrophic financial losses have reached $300 million, which could rise even faster.
In its statement, the association said the government’s lack of transparency about the firewall has fueled mistrust among Internet users and global IT users in Pakistan, who fear that their proprietary data and privacy will be compromised. will
The association called for an “immediate and unconditional end to this digital siege” and asked the government to work with industry to develop a cybersecurity framework.
In June, Pakistan’s IT exports recorded an increase of $298 million, which is 33% higher than last year.
IT exports during the fiscal year ended June stood at $3.2 billion, up 24 percent from $2.5 billion in fiscal 2023.
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2024-08-17 00:48:33
