Is the government harming the IT industry due to its political narrative? Afnan Ullah's Statement

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#internetdown #Internetoutage #firewall #mariamemon #pmshehbazsharif #sawalyehai #Senatorafnanullah   Is the government harming the IT industry due to its political narrative? Afnan Ullah's Statement

Transcript

00:00Sir, if you wanted to test a software firewall, why didn't you trust them?

00:06Why didn't you tell them that this is the phase, it will take so long, this is the method?

00:10I mean, they have such genuine concerns, how will they recover?

00:14Will it be written in your legacy that the IT industry will be ruined?

00:19Look, the topic of reputational loss is very genuine.

00:24The reason is that if you want to take a business from someone sitting outside,

00:28now you have a meeting with him, in which you have to finalize the details, and you miss that meeting.

00:32Or he has sent you messages on WhatsApp, that send me these things.

00:36And you didn't get it, you got it, so you can't open it.

00:39I mean, there is a problem for you.

00:41Did PMS tell you? They don't know, someone is misguiding them.

00:44I have raised this issue a lot on relevant quarters, and we are pushing it a lot.

00:50More improvement can be brought in this, and I will raise it in our next meeting,

00:56that if we give a schedule, that if there is such a thing in the future,

01:00then we give a schedule, like there is also a schedule for load shedding.

01:03So at least they can plan, that this issue will be on time,

01:08so we can basically not do it on that day, or not do it on that hour.

01:12How will they do monitoring?

01:14For example, you have to regulate all the data, you do load shedding in it,

01:17that we will regulate the data for 2 hours a day, not 2 hours.

01:20I am saying that if such a requirement comes in the future, there is no requirement now.

01:24But if a system is down, if there is an issue of submarine cable,

01:29there can be many other issues.

01:31So we should make a procedure for it, I will propose it in the next meeting,

01:35that we should make a procedure, so that the people who are working,

01:38can also do their work, and the other people should also not be affected.

01:41Sir, political, because there is a political angle to it,

01:43it is obvious that you have a problem with social media,

01:45the political narrative.

01:46So in order to curtail that political narrative,

01:49you are not doing any irreparable damage to the IT industry, God forbid?

01:55See, God willing, I hope, because we have been assured,

01:58that the matter will be resolved in the next 3 days.

02:01Today it was much better, if you check.

02:03How will it be?

02:04Sir, please tell us a little, that the people who are listening,

02:06maybe their connection is affected by their businesses,

02:08how will it be fixed, how is it being sorted out?

02:10See, it is obvious that in its implementation,

02:13they have to put some filters,

02:16actually this is done by the firewall, deep packet inspection.

02:19In deep packet inspection, the payload that is being moved,

02:23they go and inspect it, to see what is actually inside it,

02:27and it is obvious that you have to put a very big setup,

02:30and get it inspected, that is why the matter is probably slowing down,

02:34and you have to put its filters along with these things,

02:37so that you can specify what kind of data you want.

02:40Are there more firewalls?

02:41Because Shaza Khawaja Sahiba said that there are firewalls all over the world,

02:44apart from China and Russia, in the rest of the free world, in America.

02:47Yes, yes.

02:48Where ever you have a major, in western countries.

02:50It is there in America, it is there in the UK,

02:52because we have spoken there, they are saying that it is not there.

02:55No, no, I am telling you about the UK,

02:59I have studied there, I have done my job there,

03:02I have started a business there,

03:04it is there, their GCHQ is there, it murders.

03:07Similarly, there are more,

03:11if its implementation would have been better,

03:14then it would have been seamless, we would not have come to know.

03:16So whose responsibility is that of the Ministry of IT?

03:18Somebody has to take responsibility.

03:19No, no, we are doing it,

03:21we will raise it in the next meeting,

03:23that we will give a procedure for it.

03:24You are saying a vague thing,

03:25earlier you were not accepting that there are firewalls,

03:27now you have accepted that there are firewalls.

03:28But I have given you in the meeting.

03:30You are very clear, that is why we have called you,

03:32because you are giving us a very clear view,

03:34but it is in front of you, you are not accepting it,

03:36you have accepted it, you have told it,

03:38on that basis I am asking you a question,

03:40the loss of reputation, is it recoverable from here,

03:42or will it take time?

03:44Look, whenever there is a reputation loss,

03:47it takes time,

03:49it will not happen that tomorrow you will go and say,

03:51that I have fixed it.

03:53Your old customers,

03:55maybe they have a relationship with you,

03:59but especially the freelancers,

04:01if you see,

04:03they are doing small jobs,

04:05they have an engagement of 2 hours,

04:09or an engagement of 2 days,

04:11they come to a market place,

04:13you bid, they take it,

04:15so when that work happens,

04:17if there is a reputation loss,

04:19it is not that easy to come back.

04:21The second thing is,

04:23where we talk,

04:27that we are giving managed services on the back end,

04:29or there are contact centers,

04:32I don't know to what extent they have been impacted,

04:34if the customer experience of their end users is affected,

04:38then again,

04:40you have to give them that confidence.

04:42If you go to a restaurant,

04:44and if you get a wrong meal there,

04:46then you don't go to that restaurant again.

04:48But this future forecast,

04:50do you think it is a one time issue,

04:52or because you have your projections,

04:54after all your businesses,

04:56now you will add that risk factor,

04:58what do you think, is it a one time issue?

05:00Look, there are interruptions,

05:02in technology,

05:04I have a background in technology,

05:06so I will say that you can never say that

05:08there will never be an interruption.

05:10If I take a recent example,

05:12and I am not justifying any action,

05:14but you know,

05:16because of Microsoft,

05:18there has been an impact all over the world.

05:20All we request,

05:22and we have talked about this

05:24with Pasha's firm,

05:26if something like this is happening in the future,

05:28then better planning,

05:30and maybe you can sandbox it,

05:32and do some testing,

05:34and bring the stakeholders

05:36in a proper way,

05:38with confidence.

05:40Did anyone engage you before the fireball?

05:42Did you know about this?

05:44At least as an industry,

05:46generally we did not know,

05:48if you see in the last 8-10 days,

05:50generally people

05:52keep airing that this issue is coming,

05:54so as such,

05:56we did not have any information.

05:58So before that,

06:00no one engaged you?

06:02At least in this case,

06:04we are engaged,

06:06as an industry representative,

06:08we are engaged with the government,

06:10I have talked to you about many things,

06:12that we work with the government

06:14on tech destination,

06:16we are not involved in this.

06:18To be very honest,

06:20this is a very simple question,

06:22in the government,

06:24does anyone have any doubt,

06:26about the level of testing failure,

06:28after which people are shouting,

06:30or they are seeing it from a political angle,

06:32that it happens politically,

06:34like political collateral damage,

06:36this happens.

06:38In this, the government is looking

06:40at this issue very seriously,

06:42and we are trying very hard

06:44to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

06:46Let's call them and ask them.

06:48I have agreed to this,

06:50I am saying that in the next meeting,

06:52there should be a process,

06:54if this work would have been done

06:56according to the schedule,

06:58then there wouldn't have been so much shouting.

07:00Everyone would have managed

07:02according to their own schedule.

07:04So we will keep our recommendations,

07:06and there is a lot of awareness

07:08on the level of the government,

07:10because there is a lot of reaction

07:12from everywhere,

07:14so we want to take it forward

07:16in a better way,

07:18and of course we don't want,

07:20as you know,

07:223G and 4G didn't exist in this country,

07:24so after the market opened,

07:26businesses started,

07:28otherwise there was no business scene.

07:30But this is your legacy,

07:32in which freelancers and tech companies

07:34are leaving the country.

07:36We will hold you accountable

07:38to your word,

07:40we will keep talking about this issue,

07:42because these young people,

07:44especially the young people

07:46who work in the tech industry,

07:48in Pakistan,

07:50we know the situation of the economy,

07:52we know the situation of the job sector,

07:54how many new jobs are coming,

07:56we all know that this is their fault.

07:58These are the people who are sitting at home,

08:00using the internet on their own,

08:02creating opportunities for themselves.

08:04So if the government can't create opportunities,

08:06then at least don't snatch it from the children

08:08who are working hard.

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