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May 01, 2026
Pakistan Signs Agreement to Become ‘Data Transit Hub’ for Central Asia
Islamabad: Pakistan has signed an agreement which will turn the country into a regional “data transit hub for the whole of Central Asia” through new cross-border digital connectivity links, IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Wednesday.
Pakistan has increasingly sought to use its geographic position as a trade and transit route connecting South Asia, China, Central Asia and the Middle East, with policymakers now attempting to expand that role into digital infrastructure and data connectivity.
With more than 150 million mobile Internet users and a predominantly young population, Pakistan is increasingly promoting itself as a fast-growing digital market and outsourcing destination for foreign technology firms and investors.
“We’ve also signed an MOU with the Board of Central Asia which essentially means that we will be becoming the data transit hub for the whole of Central Asia,” Khawaja said while speaking at the EU-Pakistan Business Forum in Islamabad.
She said the government’s objective was to create a regional digital corridor stretching “from Karachi all the way to Central Asia and Central Asia through Caspian to Azerbaijan and Europe.”
Pakistan’s digital infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with rapidly rising Internet and data usage, with most users relying on mobile broadband because of limited fiber-optic coverage.
“Only 16 percent of our towers are fiberized at this point,” Khawaja said. “Our target is that in the next three years we will increase that to almost 60 percent.”
The minister said Pakistan also aims to expand the number of homes connected or accessible through fiber-optic infrastructure from around 2–3 million currently to at least 10 million within two years.
Khawaja said the government had removed right-of-way charges for fiber deployment last year to encourage private investment and accelerate broadband expansion.
Pakistan is also preparing for a wider rollout of 5G services after auctioning additional spectrum earlier this year to improve network capacity and Internet performance, she said.
Over the past year, Pakistan has added new submarine cable connections to strengthen international Internet links, with two expected to become operational this year and another next year, according to the minister. - AN
Courtesy AN
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