Pakistan’s AI strategy moved to centre stage this week when IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja asked a pointed question at a high-profile policy forum: who will actually steer the AI revolution, and whose values will it carry? The answer she offered was clear, Pakistan intends to be a driver, not a passenger.
What Happened at Margalla Dialogue 2026
Speaking on the second day of the Margalla Dialogue 2026 on Wednesday, 11 November, IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said Pakistan is determined to turn global technological change, particularly rapid AI advancement, into national development, economic growth and technological sovereignty.
The key question she stressed was who would steer this transformation and determine the values, identities and realities shaping future societies. That framing made the session different from most government AI talks, which tend to focus only on investment numbers.
The minister said AI was expected to become a $4.8 trillion economic sector by 2033 and impact approximately 40 per cent of the global employment landscape. For Pakistan, with over 220 million people and a young population, that figure carries real weight.
Pakistan AI Strategy in Numbers
The minister did not arrive with just a question. She came with a track record of concrete steps taken over the past year.
- The prime minister announced a $1 billion investment in AI, focusing on infrastructure, skills, innovation and connectivity.
- Pakistan’s National AI Policy aims to develop one million AI professionals by 2030, while the country already produces more than 75,000 graduates annually.
- The initiative also includes PhD scholarships in AI and mandatory AI education in schools and colleges.
- Pakistan and the World Bank are in the final stages of the “Digital and AI Compact 2026, 2030.”
She linked these developments to the Digital Nation Pakistan vision of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, who is personally overseeing national digital transformation targets through a structured roadmap covering connectivity, AI infrastructure and digital transformation.
The Laws Backing the Plan
Ambition needs legal muscle. Pakistan has been building that framework too.
The Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025, which establishes the Pakistan Digital Authority, entered into force on 29 January 2025. The Act establishes the Pakistan Digital Authority, a National Digital Commission and an Oversight Committee, together intended to design and implement a National Digital Masterplan, build interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure, and coordinate public-sector and private-sector digital initiatives.
Pakistan’s National AI Policy 2025 is a national roadmap built around six pillars: an AI innovation ecosystem, awareness and readiness, a secure AI ecosystem, sectoral transformation, AI infrastructure, and international partnerships.
The policy mandates creation of Centres of Excellence in major cities to consolidate computing resources, host incubators, and provide training and research facilities. These centres are meant to give universities and startups access to the kind of hardware normally out of reach for most Pakistani institutions.
Who Coordinates All This Inside Government
One gap in older coverage of Pakistan’s AI plans is the role of the institution meant to tie everything together. Pakistan Digital Authority Executive Director Dr Rehan Tahir said the authority’s key role is linking and coordinating the databases of federal and provincial governments. That work is unglamorous but essential: AI systems are only as good as the data they can access, and Pakistan’s government data has historically been fragmented across dozens of agencies.
The National Digital Commission, chaired by the Prime Minister, and an Oversight Committee led by the Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications, monitor the performance of the Pakistan Digital Authority and provide strategic direction.
The Security Angle Nobody Is Talking About
Most coverage of the Margalla Dialogue focused on the economic case for AI. But the same forum raised a harder point. Retired Brigadier Dr Rashid Wali Janjua warned that new security threats would come from AI and the changing face of war, with warfare becoming more lethal, customised and precise, and much faster, with AI’s help.
The minister stressed that sovereign AI computing capacity is essential but cannot be achieved without international collaboration. She also emphasised that cybersecurity, trust and responsible AI must be incorporated into digital systems by design rather than treated as separate or ad hoc initiatives. That is a direct response to the security concern: build it right from the start, rather than patching problems later.
Pakistan on the Global Stage
The Margalla speech was not a one-off. Pakistan has been showing up at international forums with a consistent message. At the Global AI and Digital Summit in South Korea in October 2026, Minister Khawaja presented a national roadmap titled “Digital and AI Compacts: From Ambition to Action.”
She said Pakistan is actively participating in international forums on AI governance, including the UN AI Digital Compact and the Digital Cooperation Organization, and was contesting elections to the International Telecommunication Union.
For Pakistani tech workers, developers and students, this global positioning matters. It shapes which partnerships come to Pakistan, which cloud providers invest in local infrastructure, and which international AI programmes include Pakistani institutions. The AI pilot at Daanish School Kuri shows how national policy is already reaching classrooms on the ground.
What This Means for Ordinary Pakistanis
The nature of employment is changing, the minister added, making future skills and the ability to use AI effectively increasingly important. This is the part that hits closest to home. A student finishing university today, or a professional mid-career, faces a job market that will look very different by 2030.
Free AI training for non-IT workers, mandatory AI in school curricula, and 1,000 funded PhD scholarships are the parts of this Pakistan AI strategy that touch real lives. The question is whether delivery matches the ambition, and whether institutions like the Pakistan Digital Authority can coordinate across provinces fast enough to matter. You can also read about how Google’s Digital Sahafat programme is already putting AI tools in the hands of Pakistani journalists, a sign that some of this ecosystem work is already moving.
The minister’s framing treats AI as a question of sovereignty and skills, not only economics. Whether Pakistan can build the workforce, data quality and public trust the panel described will decide whether the opportunity becomes real.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pakistan’s National AI Policy?
Pakistan’s National AI Policy 2025 is a national roadmap built around six pillars: an AI innovation ecosystem, awareness and readiness, a secure AI ecosystem, sectoral transformation, AI infrastructure, and international partnerships. It was adopted on 30 July 2025 and serves as a government direction document, not a binding law on its own.
How much is Pakistan investing in AI?
The government has made a $1 billion financial pledge toward AI development by 2030, which includes digital training for one million non-tech professionals and 1,000 fully funded doctoral scholarships in artificial intelligence.
What is the Pakistan Digital Authority?
The Pakistan Digital Authority is a statutory body established by the Government of Pakistan under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025 to modernise and develop the foundations of a digital economy. Its job is to run the National Digital Masterplan and link up government data systems across the country.
What did the IT Minister say at Margalla Dialogue 2026?
Shaza Fatima Khawaja said that Pakistan is determined to ensure that the global technological transformation, particularly the rapid advancement of AI, becomes an opportunity for national development, economic growth and technological sovereignty. She said the central question is who steers the AI revolution and whose values shape it, pushing Pakistan to be an active participant rather than a passive recipient of AI developed elsewhere.
