Slow internet speed draws Senate panel's ire
The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology on Thursday blasted the officials related to the IT sector over the slowdown of internet speed after it was informed that the net outages cost the industry Rs1.3 billion per day.
The committee met here with its chairperson Palwasha Khan in the chair. The meeting was also attended by Minister of State for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Hafeezur Rehman and others.
The meeting was apprised that the auction of 5G spectrum would be held in April and fibre optic would be connected with China. The PTA chairman said that the process for licensing the virtual private networks (VPNs) would start from the new year.
The committee members were wary of the issues regarding the internet service in the country. Senator Afnanullah Khan said that the internet speed could have slowed because of the firewall the government was installing.
The PTA chairman told the committee that there was no policy regarding decrease in the internet speed. "If there is any policy on the internet speed, then the government should be asked," he said.
IT Ministry officials said that they were trying to meet national security requirements with minimal impact on the IT industry. "We shut down internet services in case of national security [matters]," said the IT ministry secretary.
Committee member Senator Kamran Murtaza remarked whether national security was only a concern in Pakistan and questioned "why this issue does not arise in India?"
The chair remarked that whatever steps the IT ministry took, it put the responsibility on the interior ministry. "I don't understand why we have an IT Ministry?"
The committee received a briefing from Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) Chairman Sajjad Syed. He said that Pakistan was losing Rs1.3 billion on a daily basis due to the internet shutdown.
Committee member Anusha Rehman asked whether the internet was affected by the VPN registration? The PTA chairman replied that internet did not slow down due to VPN. He, however, added that the problem would be resolved with the licensed VPN.
Senator Rehman then pointed out that in 2018 the then government had registered the VPNs and did the whitelisting to stop gray traffic, but there were no problems with the internet service at that time.
The officials said that all countries monitored the VPNs because there were data security risks associated with free VPNs. They added that P@sha had suggested the VPN service providers and the government to register the VPNs locally.
The PTA chairman said that 30,974 VPNs had been registered so far, while the issuance of VPN licenses would start from January 1, 2025. Anusha Rehman stressed that the internet should not be affected by the VPN registration.
Minister of State Khawaja informed the committee that there could be technical reasons for slow internet, stressing that there had been no investment in the IT sector in the last three years. Now, she added, megahertz (MHz) spectrum had been cleared.
"The auction of 5G spectrum will be held in April and fibre optic will be connected with China," Khawaja said. "IT is our priority. There have been cuts in the budget of all sectors, but no cut in the IT budget," she added.