Asim Iftikhar Mughal believes that utilising local talent is the best way to serve Pakistan’s IT sector.
Muhammad Umar Waqqas
KARACHI: IT companies play a major role in bolstering the economy of a country. Pakistan has an enthusiastic IT industry that is confronted with a wide variety of challenges.
Asim Iftikhar says “Have we understood the IT sector just to run social media marketing through it or everyone to do their own business and everyone to get indulged in already existing businesses like the food industry and open and market restaurants?
Or we become Tiktokers influencers or models and dancers? Has our IT industry become so restricted that our youth may become bike riders of any food application or they only become influencers of Tiktok, facebook and youtube?
Is the allocation of the government’s IT budget just so limited? Shouldn’t we develop domestically designed applications by utilizing the local resources?
If a company is offering a course on social media marketing and forcing you to buy their USB by pretending to be an IT expert, is that the best way? Such a trend has not been seen in any developed country. If the goal is just to receive limited remittances and not to advance this industry in a real sense, then Pakistan will never be able to develop in the field of Information Technology.
If attention is paid, the remittances coming into the country can be increased through various quality developments and the government can be supported more. But unfortunately we have limited our IT industry to only Tiktok and short courses. How would we study, teach and advance in universities?
Asim Iftikhar said, “It has been observed that short courses have caused immense damage to the IT industry. A large number of people think that they will get a prominent position in this industry after doing a few-month based short IT courses.
This perception has undermined the importance of regular degree education of universities. The direction of our country’s IT industry is not correct, there is immediate need for many drastic reforms. There is no shortage of talented people in Pakistan, if they are provided with resources, they can provide incredible services in the local and international market.
It is worrisome that most of the country’s IT companies are trending towards the international market while domestic IT development is being completely neglected. We are still dependent on applications like Amazon while there is no focus on the development of prominent local made applications.”
Asim Iftikhar said applications like Amazon, Paypal, Ebay are not non-profitable NGOs but they have great business objectives. Do these applications work for free in different countries of the world? These applications address the areas that are developing.
If we develop our industry, support our brilliant individuals, create social media platforms at the government level, take that capital inside, solve the problems of e-commerce, bring security and service quality control here, if we organise our own country in IT via creating a business environment through digitalization then all well-known companies including Amazon will be interested in investing in Pakistan.
Every country’s vehicle wants to be launched in Pakistan because our automobile industry is on growth and people have purchasing power. Therefore, when the IT business will be managed in our country, these companies will themselves turn to Pakistan.
If you consider, these companies have gone to many such countries of the world that had less resources than us. Along with strong lobbying, the business environment is also important. When we open our borders and do business despite the tension, business starts.
Business awaits business. Instead of waiting for a messiah, if we should focus on our local development and develop our own platforms, all the developed institutions of the world will reach us.
PASHA is a functional trade body and registered association for the IT industry in Pakistan, it is primarily supposed to promote and develop the software and IT industry in Pakistan and to protect the rights of its all members. Utilize the services of such people who have knowledge or have experiences at their ground level.
Instead of working with those people who have not made any progress in the local industry because they prefer to work in the international market, they would sit to talk but their earnings are based on the international operations, so how can they solve the problems of our local industry?
Asim Iftikhar said i want PASHA to give them a helping hand and concern them about what problems they face in the local market and how to resolve them.
After that send all the findings to the Government. PASHA should contact individuals like us so that we can assist them in a prominent manner.
If we work together with a common thought, our country will benefit in the future. Nothing happens immediately. Right now, things are just going on, but they have no direction or goal.
Time has come for the government to take all necessary steps for the development of the IT industry of Pakistan. IT is the future of our country and the improvement of its system is the urgent need of the hour, CEO Aish Tycoons Asim Iftikhar Mughal tells TFD.
