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Pakistan Getting Connected
By Hasan Zaidi
Hasan conducted the following interview with Hasan Akhter Rizvi as part of a cover story on the Internet and Pakistan in the June 1997 issue of Herald magazine.
dawn.com/herald
The title of the story was "Getting Connected: Pakistan logs on to the net". The basic thrust of the story was that Pakistanis are using the Internet in increasingly large numbers despite the lack of official encouragement and what often amounts to discouragement (through high tariffs, bureaucracy, threats of censorship).
Hasan Rizvi is the coordinator of the United Nations Sustainable Development Network, Pakistan. He provides a developmentalist/social activist perspective on use of the Internet.
Q: Do you think there has been an Internet revolution in Pakistan? If not, do you think it is on the way?
HR: I won't call it a revolution, though under the circumstances, the growth has been fairly healthy.
Q: Do you think it is a good thing? Why? (there are of course people who see it as another threat to the social and ideological boundaries of the country...)
HR: Its potential for good far outweighs the negative influences it may have. It's a great tool for education and an empowering technology for the common man. No technology is perfect -- there are bound to be flaws; the challenge is to minimise them, without blunting its edge for positive development.
Q: How do you see the Internet changing Pakistan?
HR: Its potential for change is enormous. Internet has been rightly claimed as a new form of communications that mankind has stumbled upon. It has become the model of integrated digital communications, the "information superhighway" that some futurists and visionaries had been waiting for. But if it were to play a significant role in changing Pakistan - for the better, as everyone would like - a concerted policy effort backed by effective implementation is required of the government.
At the moment Internet is accessible to very few people, mostly belonging to the privileged section of the society and there is every reason to fear that it'll further increase the disparity between those who have access to this wonderful resource and those who have not. It also tends to widen the generation gap since it is a young technology and young people take to it like fish in water; the older generation has great trouble trying to master it, though it is not something specific to Pakistan.
Q: SDNP was among the first providers of email services in Pakistan. How does it see itself? (ie. what role was / is it trying to fulfil?) What do you think it has been able to do? What are its future plans? (ie. will it ever go online?)
HR: In a nutshell, our aim is to promote sustainable development through electronic networking. But during the initial phase of our operations, in the absence of any public networking services available in Pakistan, we tried to promote electronic networking per se and act as catalysts for creating a national network. It was a demonstration project to underline the fact that even without any massive capital investment, or the use of state of the art networking technology, a cheap dialup alternative can still cater for useful national and international networking. I think we have been fairly successful in this, with about 5000 client 'nodes' and 10-20 thousand end users in the country.
This phase is now over with a number of big DNOPs (Data Network Operators) and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in the field. In our next phase, we would concentrate more on information provision (in addition to providing mere connectivity) and putting indigenous sustainable development information on the Internet. We would also move closer towards our original goal of development networking by providing the most concessional rates (and the maximum assistance) to NGO's in the development sector, educational institutions and government agencies, though we would still be open for the corporate and personal users. So we are now positioning for a more specific niche in the market.
UNDP has now agreed in principle for SDNP to go online. We are waiting for a formal approval after which it'll take 3-6 months to launch our online services.
Q: What, in your opinion, is the biggest hindrance to the spread of the Internet in Pakistan?
HR: Just think about what is required to be on the Internet - a computer, a telephone line and a modem, apart from some expertise in their use, and what is generally not highlighted, a good working knowledge of the English language -- and you'll get the answer. So the twin menace of illiteracy and poverty coupled with an extremely thin coverage of basic telecommunications services (there are only about 1.7 telephone lines per 100 Pakistanis) is the biggest hindrance of Internet growth in the country.
To make matters worse, Internet is more expensive in Pakistan than the rich countries of the North. That's because of the exorbitant cost of international bandwidth without which an Internet service can't be launched.
Q: What do you think needs to be done at the policy/government level to encourage its growth?
HR: Considering the problems listed above, there can't be a magic cure. It will require a long-term effort. National policies and plans to root out illiteracy and poverty and investment in telecommunication infrastructure would have a massive positive impact on the growth of Internet in the country. In fact Internet is such a powerfully enabling technology that without such measures, any short term palliatives would only increase the disparity between the haves and have nots in the country.
However, Internet is unique in that it can be used to attack some of the problems that impede its growth. It has already proved as a great educational tool and would increasingly become a tool for business and commerce as well. The two most important steps that the government can take to encourage the growth of Internet (in the short term) is to subsidise Internet services for the educational institutions (at least universities) and open international data communications for the private sector. At the moment, PTC has a monopoly on it, which is one reason for the high cost of international bandwidth.
Hasan Zaidi <hzaidi@cyber.net.pk> is the Features Editor for The Herald, Pakistan. |
