With only a few hours left in Pakistan’s General Elections 2018, there are certain things we need to look at before casting our valuable vote.

While political campaigning came to an end at 12:00 am yesterday, one thing will remain a topic today as well. And that one thing that remained static, which will be discussed yet another day before the elections is, ‘The party’s manifesto’.

So without mentioning every minute detail offered by the leading political parties in Pakistan, we are here to seek and provide the technology updates mentioned (if they did) in their party’s manifesto for General Elections 2018.

But before discussing the potential future of Pakistan digital economy, let’s have a look at what the former government of Pakistan did the field of technology in its tenure.

What Did The Former Government Of Pakistan Did For The Sake Of Digital Economy Of The Country?

Fortunately, from past few years, Pakistan is emerging as a country with a stable economy. The country, which was once and the verge of instability in economic sectors, has now become the fifth largest emerging economy in the world. But the real question which arises here is that, where does our digital economy stands in today’s world?

One can’t deny the huge amount of stability and security provided by an emerging digital economy in today’s digitized world. But sadly, Pakistan is lagging behind in the world’s IT sectors, and we as a nation should be concerned about it.

The previous government of Pakistan, however, took major steps in order to cope up with the digital-modern world by introducing ecosystem for entrepreneurship, which was detrimental for the country’s economy in the coming years.

Not only the entrepreneurship programmes, the former government introduced entrepreneurial initiatives for youth, research centers for academia and tax incentives for the digital industry, which were regarded as the bedrock for the digital economy of Pakistan.

So this pretty much proves that the former Government of Pakistan (PMLN’S government) tried to bring change in the IT sectors of the country.

And now this brings us to our next question and topic of today’s technology blog, which is 

What Will Future Government Do In Order To Make Pakistan A Stable Digital Economic Country?

In this current election season, every conversation is based on futuristic questions like, what will be the future of this country? Who will form the future government? Who will be elected as the future Prime Minister? And so on… But now that’s it’s clear that is the conversation in today’s blog is based on technological future of this country so here’s what we have sought out from the manifesto of contesting political parties in the elections happening tomorrow.

One more thing that is to be noted before judging these digital policies is that a digital ecosystem isn’t limited to development in sectors and introducing startups but it is concerned with solving urban-rural challenges through technology and development, the building of next generation of the digital workforce and bringing tech innovation the social sectors of the country.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf: The 14-point Digital Policy

The first party to announce technology as its utmost priority is Imran Khan’s party, PTI. To improve Pakistan Digital domain, PTI took the first step in introducing its digital policy based in 14 points.

The former MNA, Asad Umar from PTI, stated in a press conference that the party’s chairman Imran Khan has pledged to lead the IT sectors after coming in power by winning the General Elections 2018.

Pakistan Peoples Party: A Three-Pronged Approach For Local IT Sectors

After PTI’s digital manifesto, PPP put forward party’s manifesto which contains a three-pronged approach for the advancement of the local IT sector.

Unlike PTI, PPP’s digital manifesto couldn’t grab much attention as it only managed to revolve around critical policy statements and regulatory frameworks.

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz: Digitising Pakistan With An Action-Plan

Aforementioned tenure of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz gave as an insight of the party’s digital acknowledgment and concerns. In their previous chaotic and incomplete tenure, the party managed to introduce some revolutionary reforms in the IT sectors. Their current manifesto is based on some promising developmental changes that can digitize Pakistan. Unlike other parties, PMLN put forward its future digital policies with an effective action plan.

The party promises in its manifesto to expand the already plotted incentives in Punjab to other parts of the country. This expansion will ensure a strong focus on digitizing citizens services.

One of the promising development in PML-N’s manifesto is the party’s aim to cut down the cost of broadband access which will result in the increase of internet access in the country.

While this technology blog in Pakistan focused on the digital outcomes in the light of leading parties’ manifesto, we want to highlight and encourage our readers to exercise their right tomorrow on 25th July 2018 by casting their vote for the sake of technological development and overall betterment of Pakistan.

Remember, every vote makes a difference.