Bilawal warns of shrinking digital space

Urges students to use education to resist such attempts

HYDERABAD:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari warned on Tuesday that the digital space in Pakistan was under threat and urged the youth to engage in "democratic and peaceful resistance" to secure digital rights, including high-speed internet.

Speaking at the 11th convocation of the IBA University in Sukkur, Bilawal lambasted the developed world for leaving developing countries in the lurch, taking the climate change and its repercussions to their stride despite they [the developing nations] being at no fault.

Echoing his speech at the Sindh University convocation a day ago, the PPP chairman once again asked the youth to support his push for securing digital rights and combat climate change. He also repeated his criticism of old thinking of the 70 years old bureaucrats and politicians.

The PPP chairman warned the students and the country's youth that the government was trying to control their freedom to use the internet. He advised the country's youth to resist attempts to shrink the digital space for them.

"In the present era, our digital space is in danger," Bilawal alerted the students and the academia. "They [the government] want to control everything in their hands. They will try to control you, your institutions and your infrastructure," he warned.

The internet, he continued, had emerged as the modern-day infrastructure to connect people, institutions and businesses globally. He reminded the students that history shows that the rulers never offered rights to the people on a silver platter, rather the people fought to win their rights.

"But it doesn't mean that you have to fight with guns. The others had guns but you had your education, pen and your voice and you defeated all gun-wielding forces one after another," he said, referring to the political struggle for Pakistan independence.

He equated the economic value of the internet to the agriculture in Pakistan, saying the former was as much a backbone for the economy as the latter. He believed that turning Pakistan into a $1 trillion economy was possible only if the government liberated the digital tech sector.

He once again floated a proposal to the academia to help him draft the digital bill of rights by sharing their expertise directly with him through social media platforms. He assured that he would keep visiting the educational institutions to garner support of the youth for the bill.

"We won't just write the bill draft but we will also prevail upon the elderly authorities in Islamabad, who still use old Nokia phones and who don't know about WhatsApp, Twitter [now X], Instagram, Netflix and gaming. We have to snatch our rights through the digital bill of rights," he said.

Coming to the threat of climate change, Bilawal urged the developing countries to join forces in order to confront the rich countries. "That it is your fault because to run your industries and to fulfil your capitalist greed they have harmed the environment globally," he said.