Internet Outages have frustrated Pakistan, making popular social media applications like WhatsApp, Instagram, Gmail, and TikTok inaccessible. The disruptions began late Saturday night and lasted into Sunday, severely impacting online communication and daily business activities.
Major cities, including Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, experienced slower-than-usual internet speeds. Residents in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal and North Nazimabad complained about difficulties in sending messages, downloading media files, and connecting to Wi-Fi networks. Similar complaints were echoed in Quetta and Peshawar, with users facing challenges in uploading and sharing files.
The internet monitoring service Downdetector indicated that outage reports for Gmail, WhatsApp, and Instagram started increasing at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Though this kind of issue has occurred several times in Pakistan, the government has still not given an official reason for the current problem.
Government Response
Speaking about the outages, Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja assured us that cellular data services would remain functional and termed the issue “temporary.” She said it is due to technical challenges rather than some sort of deliberate restriction because the country is on the path of upgrading digital infrastructure.
The minister explained that Pakistan has limited internet bandwidth and plans to auction more spectrum in 2025 to improve it. She also discussed the cyber security measures she is implementing, saying rumors of censorship were “completely baseless.”
Economic Impact
Repeated internet failure is expected to be a setback for the growth of the IT sector in Pakistan, which has witnessed impressive growth during the last several months. Smaller businesses and freelancers, who largely rely on uninterrupted connectivity, are affected the most.
The authorities are dismissing these disruptions as people all over the country look forward to returning to normalcy through stable and reliable internet services.
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