Pakistan will emerge as IT power in the world: Ahsan Iqbal

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said the final draft of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy would be presented to the Federal Cabinet for approval in August.

Addressing a meeting of the Special Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, he directed the quarters concerned to complete the consultation process with all stakeholders as soon as possible, according to a news release.

He highlighted the importance of AI in the modern era, saying “Artificial intelligence is not the future but the present reality in the world,” and highlighted it as an essential tool for advancement in multiple fields.

The minister recalled that it was the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government that established the National Center for Artificial Intelligence in 2017 and the National Task Force on Artificial Intelligence in 2023. “We have created National Centers for Excellence in Advanced Technologies under Vision 2025 and linked each centre to engineering labs in eight to ten universities,” he added.

Had these centres not been established on time, Ahsan Iqbal said the country would have been left far behind in this field.
He noted that in the past, inconsistencies in various policies had hindered development activities and the uplift of the national economy. Under a conspiracy, he said, the nation’s self-confidence had been eroded, with some elements causing serious damage to its image abroad, contrary to the true depiction of an intelligent and hardworking nation.

Whenever Pakistan’s economic progress began to gain momentum, he said, some elements appeared to obstruct it. Now, he added, with the initiation of the second phase of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor (CPEC), the “characters of riot and anarchy” were active once again.