Daily Times

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Wednesday that internet services were restored across the country following an earlier interruption.

“It is notified that the internet/broadband is now available across Pakistan. Short interruption/degradation was successfully resolved. The exact issue is being investigated by PTA,” the authority said in an update around 10pm. Internet services provided by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) earlier suffered disruption across the country today, the company said.

“PTCL network is facing data outage in various cities due to which connectivity has been affected,” PTCL spokesperson Amir Pasha told the media.

PTA spokesperson Malahat Obaid attributed the disruption to a “fault in the PTCL system”.

“Internet/broadband users may experience degraded services during peak hours,” she said, explaining that the disruption may affect PTCL users and those internet service providers using PTCL’s bandwidth.

The spokesperson added teams were currently fixing the fault while the PTA was monitoring the situation till internet/broadband services were back to normal.

Separately, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that the government was taking all-out measures to provide fast and uninterrupted Internet connectivity to the people.

The prime minister, in a meeting with a three-member delegation of Asia Internet Coalition, headed by Managing Director Jeff Paine, said that the government was implementing a strategy to attract foreign investment in the information technology infrastructure.

The meeting featured the discussion on data security, code of ethics for Internet content, and prevention of electronic crimes.

Prime Minister Shehbaz told the delegation that the government was working to promote a basic infrastructure based on artificial intelligence.

He said the government was resolved to make Pakistan achieve a distinction in AI infrastructure in the region.

He said under the Digital Pakistan Initiative, the whole system was being digitised and expressed the hope that the digitisation of Federal Board of Revenue would prove to be a milestone towards economic digitisation and automation.

During the briefing, it was informed that consultation with all stakeholders on the draft of Personal Data Protection Bill was in progress.

Prime Minister Shehbaz appreciated the services of Asia Internet Coalition in promoting IT and Internet infrastructure in the Asia Pacific Region.

The delegation members apprised the prime minister of the Coalition’s services in Pakistan’s IT sector.

Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunications Shaza Fatima Khawaja, IT expert Tania Aidrus and relevant senior officers attended the meeting.