Arooj is a freelancer. She designs logos on Fiver and Upwork and runs her household from that.
He has the responsibility of four younger siblings and parents. Several of his designs (gigs) were rated four stars, but since in Pakistan Internet slowness suffered from not being able to complete the work on time to the clients.
Clients have started complaining against him which has reduced the rating of his designs (gigs) and thus his income.
He says, ‘Fiveer disabled Pakistani gigs due to fear of low ratings and gave an option to enable it if you want to.
‘Gigs being inactive means a complete stoppage of income which I can’t afford, as I have to pay electricity and gas bills, school fees for younger siblings and arrange for parent’s medication. .’
According to Aroog, if the internet continues to suffer from the same slowness for a few more days, then their years of hard work will be wasted.
‘It takes years to get a gig to a good rating and minutes to get a bad one.
“Clients have started giving negative feedback which has almost stopped the work, but the government may not be aware of it.
‘The government can’t give us jobs, so at least we have to live, but don’t kick us.’
She further said that the Prime Minister is claiming to bring an IT revolution in the country but I will believe his claims only when he restores the internet service immediately and heals the loss caused to lakhs of freelancers including me.
Shahzad Jameel is a YouTuber. His views have reduced drastically due to internet service being affected.
They say that they are making materials daily, which is incurring constant expenses, but the income has reduced a lot.
‘Additional content is also important. If you don’t upload content for a few days, YouTube backs the channel, which causes damage.’
He said that if the internet problem continues in the country, I will have to close the YouTube channel.
Umar Safdar of Lahore works as an online truck dispatcher in the US and Canada.
Due to slow internet speed, his organization is not able to communicate with companies and drivers, even WhatsApp is not working, due to which the trucks are not able to deliver the goods on time. Some clients have opted out of working together again.
‘They are going through a very difficult time. Internet is a daily problem in Pakistan. I am now seriously considering moving my office to Dubai or UK so that business is not affected.’
Pakistan Freelancers Association President Tufail Ahmad Khan told Independent Urdu that Pakistan is the fourth largest freelancing industry in the world.
“Over 2 million people are involved in this sector and more than 350 million dollars come into the country through freelancing, but we are losing business every day due to constant disruption of the internet.
The most worrying situation is that it is not being told how long this problem will be solved.
“Some people are claiming that such problems will continue in the future.”
He claimed that the loss of around 300 million dollars is expected due to disruption of internet service. These include not only freelancers but also other IT-related sectors.’
According to Khurram Rahat, Vice Chairman of Pakistan Software Export Board Association (PASHA), ‘Pakistan’s IT exports have increased from 2.5 billion dollars to 3.2 billion dollars last year.
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But due to frequent internet service disruptions, further increase in exports will not be possible and the target of taking IT exports to 25 billion dollars will not be achieved.
He said that the real damage is being done to the image of Pakistan, which has no value.
“We have been trying to improve the image of the country for many years, but in these circumstances, these efforts will go in vain.
‘A freelancer can go and work in any country with a laptop and a backpack. Now developed countries are also giving citizenship to freelancers on easy terms. The government needs to think seriously.’
According to Shahzad Arshad, chairman of Wireless and Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan, the speed of the Internet has dropped to about 30 to 40 percent, which is a possible reason. Firewall which has badly affected everything connected to the Internet.
“If this has been done for security reasons, it should have been communicated ahead of time and an alternative route should have been given.”
The government’s position is that internet is running on broadband and Wi-Fi. The real problem is coming to the mobile phone operator which will be solved soon.
The Senate Standing Committee has asked to resolve the issue within two weeks. Meanwhile, an application regarding internet service has also been filed in Lahore High Court.
However, the IT ministry is not ready to accept that the government is responsible for this. The non-serious attitude of the government is a big problem.
If this happened in a developed country, the IT minister might have resigned. The government is requested to restore internet immediately so that the problems of common Pakistanis can be reduced.
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2024-08-17 17:26:19