Pakistan will emerge as IT power in the world: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said the final draft of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy would be presented to the Federal Cabinet for approval in August.

Addressing a meeting of the Special Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, he directed the quarters concerned to complete the consultation process with all stakeholders as soon as possible, according to a news release.

He highlighted the importance of AI in the modern era, saying “Artificial intelligence is not the future but the present reality in the world,” and highlighted it as an essential tool for advancement in multiple fields.

The minister recalled that it was the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government that established the National Center for Artificial Intelligence in 2017 and the National Task Force on Artificial Intelligence in 2023. “We have created National Centers for Excellence in Advanced Technologies under Vision 2025 and linked each centre to engineering labs in eight to ten universities,” he added.

Had these centres not been established on time, Ahsan Iqbal said the country would have been left far behind in this field.

He noted that in the past, inconsistencies in various policies had hindered development activities and the uplift of the national economy. Under a conspiracy, he said, the nation’s self-confidence had been eroded, with some elements causing serious damage to its image abroad, contrary to the true depiction of an intelligent and hardworking nation.

Whenever Pakistan’s economic progress began to gain momentum, he said, some elements appeared to obstruct it. Now, he added, with the initiation of the second phase of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC), the “characters of riot and anarchy” were active once again.

During Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visit to China, the minister said the brotherly country pledged to provide IT training to 200,000 Pakistani youth, equipping them with the skills needed to meet modern challenges.
He said the world was developing rapidly in various aspects of artificial intelligence, and Pakistan has to catch it pace.

He noted that some countries were not granting visas to Pakistani students for education in modern technology, but “we will obtain modern technology at any cost.”

He asked to share recommendations from the task force with the provinces; expressing confidence that artificial intelligence would lead to revolutionary health, education, finance and agriculture results.

Ahsan Iqbal announced that experts from across Pakistan would be invited to participate in a National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, which will be organised soon. “Pakistan will emerge as an IT and information power in the world.”

He questioned why Pakistani youth could not develop successful platforms like social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.