Pakistan among world’s worst performers in internet access: Report

Islamabad [Pakistan], May 9 (ANI): Pakistan in 2022 remained among the world’s worst performers in terms of internet access and digital governance, Dawn reported citing a report.

The report titled ‘Pakistan’s Internet Landscape 2022’ was released by human rights and advocacy organisation Bytes For All and explored in detail the complex relationship between human rights and information and communication technologies, as per the news report.
According to the report, Pakistan made some gains with respect to internet access and overall governance. However, the country remained among the worst performers, according to Dawn.

“In terms of internet access and overall governance, Pakistan made some gains, but in the context of the world, the country remains among the worst performers, even within just Asia,” Dawn quoted the report as saying.

The report said that despite a rise in internet penetration, approximately 15 per cent of the population still lacked access to the internet and mobile or telecom services. According to the report, the rest of the people suffered from slow speeds and a lack of consistency in services.

It pointed out that one of the biggest global gender gaps in access and a struggle to stay online was “load shedding and blackouts” caused due to energy crisis.

The report said, “Add to this a lack of inclusivity and digital literacy, one of the biggest global gender gaps in access and a struggle to stay online due to load shedding and blackouts brought on by an energy crisis and catastrophic floods, and a dismal picture emerges.”

The report said that Pakistan ranked last among the 22 countries in Asia and 79 globally in the key indicators of availability, affordability, relevance and readiness, as per the Dawn report.

The report highlighted a massive gender gap in both internet access and mobile phone access for females and called it a “major issue” in Pakistan, as per the news report.

The Bytes for All report said the GSMA Mobile Gender Gap 2022 Report highlighted Pakistan’s poor standing in terms of access for females. It further said that the gap had narrowed slightly over time.

The report said, “In summary, Pakistan had the widest gender gap in mobile ownership of all countries surveyed with just half of women owning a mobile phone, as compared to over 75 per cent of men.”

It said that the federal government and provincial governments in Pakistan introduced a number of online activities. However, ‘Digital Pakistan’ was affected by political upheaval, and economic as well as climate crises, according to Dawn report.

The report said that floods in the second half of 2022 proved to be “the greatest challenge for the government” as 33 million people were affected and infrastructure, including telecom and internet faced extensive damage.

According to the report, Pakistan witnessed a rise in cybercrime with more than 100,000 complaints registered by 2022, which is the highest number in the last five years.