Muhammad Umar Waqqas
KARACHI: In an era defined by rapid technological change, Pakistan stands at a critical crossroads. With a burgeoning youth population and a growing global demand for digital services, the nation has the potential to transform its economy and workforce through innovation and strategic investment in information technology (IT). At the forefront of this movement is Rana Umara Azeem, the visionary CEO of Creative Tugs (www.creativetugs.com), a Karachi-based digital agency, who articulates a road-map for empowering Pakistan’s youth and propelling the IT industry toward sustainable growth.
Rana Umara Azeem highlights some significant untapped areas to focus on, she says “While technical skills and coding programs are often promoted as the solution to Pakistan’s digital future, the reality on the ground is far more complex. Learning IT skills alone is not enough. We are training individuals, but we are not building an ecosystem.”
Drawing from her own entrepreneurial journey, Rana highlights that Pakistan lacks a complete digital business environment, one that supports not only developers, but also sales professionals, account managers, analysts, customer support teams, and operational leadership required to sustain global tech businesses.
“One of our biggest struggles as tech entrepreneurs is not talent, it is infrastructure,” she explains. “Pakistan still does not have a reliable, globally accepted direct payment system. We are forced to rely on third-party platforms that deduct heavy fees, delay payments, and restrict cash flow. This puts Pakistani firms at a disadvantage compared to global competitors who can receive payments seamlessly.”
She stresses that cash flow, sales strategy, and client servicing are as critical as writing code. “A developer without access to sales enablement, financial systems, legal frameworks, and operational support cannot scale. Yet our training models focus almost entirely on coding, ignoring how real tech businesses actually function.”
Rana also warns against the misconception that technical skills alone will secure long-term employment, especially in the age of artificial intelligence. “AI is rapidly automating routine development tasks. The future workforce must be trained in analysis, strategy, product thinking, system design, and problem-solving, not just syntax and tools.”
She advocates for a collaborative national ecosystem, one that integrates education, payment infrastructure, sales training, financial literacy, and administrative support into a single pipeline. “Students should graduate understanding how to sell services globally, manage clients, handle cash flow, analyze markets, and work alongside AI, not compete blindly against it.”
“Pakistan does not just need coders, It needs builders of systems. Without a complete environment that supports technology businesses end to end, we will continue exporting talent but failing to build sustainable digital enterprises at home.” Rana Umara Azeem tells The Financial Daily.
