Digital rights activist Usama Khilji has slammed the government for the internet shutdown, saying that it would not be able to achieve its target of trillion-dollar information technology exports if such actions are taken.

“This joke about the internet being good won’t last long,” he said while appearing on the Aaj News programme Spotlight with Munizae Jahangir on Tuesday.

“I think no one believes in their statements and the whole of Pakistan laughs at their statements,” Khilji said when asked that the government rejected statistics related to the financial impact of the internet shutdown and there were no connectivity issues.

Earlier in the day, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters that the internet in Pakistan was “much better and cheaper” as compared to several other countries. He dismissed claims made in a recent report that internet outages in the country had caused massive financial losses last year.

In the latter half of 2024, users in Pakistan frequently faced slow internet speeds, challenges in downloading media on WhatsApp, and inconsistent connectivity.

Digital analysts noted that the government had been testing a “firewall” to monitor certain platforms and restrict access to specific content. While the government denied throttling internet services, it stated that it was upgrading a ‘web management system’ to improve cybersecurity.

A recent report by Top10VPN.com, an independent VPN reviewer, highlighted that Pakistan experienced the highest financial losses globally due to internet outages and social media app shutdowns last year, amounting to a staggering $1.62 billion in total economic impact.

Khilji, the Bolo Bhi director, said that the government should speak the truth and appoint qualified people to the IT ministry. “You may be competent, but if you don’t have IT expertise, then you will say what you are being told.”

He went on to add that the ground realities in the country were different as many people emigrated from Pakistan to other countries last year.

The digital rights activist agreed with the fact that disinformation is wrong but added that the government should counter it with a narrative.

He added that the government was missing its trillion-dollar target by throttling the internet. Khilji wondered whether the security situation improved after such steps.

“We should reject this narrative that the internet is being shut down to combat terrorism,” he said, “they don’t want frustrated Pakistani people to criticise what happened during the election and after that. The people are raising their voice on the internet.”

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PTI leader Umair Niazi, who was also on the show, disagreed with the perception that competent people should head the ministry. He said that sometimes expert people have proven to be “disaster” for the ministry they headed.

He was of the view that it was a matter of the “intention”.

PPP lawmaker Sharmila Farooqi had joined the show via video link. She shared that the authority during a National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology meeting said it shut down the internet on the advice of the interior ministry to combat terrorism.

She argued that such actions did prove to be fruitful as terrorist incidents increased last year. Sharmila wondered whether or not the government did a cost-benefit analysis of shutting down the internet.