Prime Minister Imran Khan has predicted a bright future for information technology in Pakistan. Addressing an e-commerce Convention in Islamabad on Monday, he said that IT exports could reach $50 billion in the next few years. By not specifying exactly when this could happen he was probably wise, for though the possibility exists, it cannot be tied down to a particular year. It is certainly encouraging that exports jumped from Rs 2 billion to Rs 3.75 billion, but to expect that breakneck pace to be maintained is probably not realistic. It would take about four years at that rate, of nearly doubling itself.
The problem is that Pakistan, while it may have many of the good qualities that Mr Khan says it does, like a willing and able populace, it has not had the kind of government support that would lead to the phenomenal growth that is being envisaged.
Pakistan is jumping on the bandwagon a little late, and may be only doing so after rival India has made the running. Pakistan may well find itself unable to catch up because of the edge India has gained in the field, which includes not just $79 billion in exports, but also ‘export’ of a large number of IT professionals abroad, especially the USA.
Indians have now started reaching CEO posts in US tech giants. It has done so because of the investment made in a chain of Institutes of Science and Technology at the personal initiative of then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru back in the 1950s. When the IT revolution began, India had a reservoir of trained manpower ready to jump on the bandwagon. Pakistan still does not have any comparable institutions.
Without a body of educated professionals, Pakistan will merely plough behind in the wake of others. The government should not take such pride in the incentives it has given the field, until it can also look with satisfaction at steps it may have taken in this respect. The Single National Curriculum, that represents its only contribution, to education, was not motivated by a desire to take Pakistan into the 21 century, but by a series of concerns with origins in 20th century debates, which have probably been rendered irrelevant by advances in IT.
