KARACHI: The Pakistan Business Council (PBC), the country’s leading corporate advocacy platform, warned on Friday that several multinational companies are planning to relocate their back offices from Pakistan, with many having already done so recently.
The PBC said in a statement on social media platform X, “While we struggle with the costs of idle capacity in power generation leading to unemployment and loss of exports and tax revenue, we now have to contend with the threat of idle capacity in the emerging software sector due to poor execution of a firewall,”
The Pakistan Business Council also said that even if a firewall is necessary for security, trials could have saved the livelihoods of thousands of freelance software developers and avoided damage to Pakistan’s credibility as a reliable supplier of IT/IT-enabled services.
The PBC urged the authorities to go back “and get the right firewall or learn to apply it without creating unnecessary impact on employment and exports”.
The statement comes amid ongoing nationwide internet disruptions, with the exact cause still unidentified. The tech industry has already raised alarms, warning that these disruptions could cost Pakistan’s economy up to $300 million.
The senior vice chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) Ali Ihsan, said that “These disruptions are not mere inconveniences; but, a direct, tangible and aggressive assault on the industry’s viability – inflicting an estimated and devastating financial losses estimated to reach $300 million, which can further increase exponentially,”
The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) also warned that frequent internet disruptions in Pakistan “could upset” the country’s economic progress.
