ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Aseefa Bhutto Zardari and Abdul Qadir Patel took a dig at the government’s 5G rollout plans during a National Assembly session, questioning the poor state of internet services across the country, ARY News reported.
During the question hour, lawmakers criticised the parliamentary secretary and the Ministry of Information Technology over slow internet speeds and poor mobile signals across Pakistan.
Aseefa Bhutto Zardari expressed concern over the state of internet services, saying neither 4G nor 5G was working properly in Nawabshah and other parts of the country. She stressed the need to improve internet speed and service quality for all sectors, including the business community.
When Parliamentary Secretary for IT Sabeen Ghauri failed to explain the meaning and details of 5G, Aseefa Bhutto sarcastically offered to explain the technology to her.
“If the parliamentary secretary does not know what 5G means, she can come and sit with us, and we will explain it to her,” Aseefa said.
Panel of Chairmen member Abdul Qadir Patel also mocked the proposed 5G rollout, asking, “Has 4G died that 5G is being introduced?”
He complained that internet services had become slower and more dysfunctional since the current government came to power.
Responding to the criticism, Sabeen Ghauri told the House that the government would initially stabilise 5G services in 24 major cities before expanding coverage to other areas.
She added that 2G and 3G services were also affected in some areas due to disruptive activities and security concerns.
Pakistan has 210 million mobile users
In its written response submitted to the National Assembly, the Ministry of IT stated that Pakistan currently has 210 million mobile users, including 161.7 million mobile broadband subscribers.
The ministry said various proposals were under consideration to reduce mobile taxes, promote local smartphone manufacturing and allow duty-free imports of 5G equipment.
The written briefing also revealed that an allocation of Rs352.5 million had been approved for advanced research programmes, including Spark and Elevate, for the fiscal year 2026-27. However, no funds had yet been released for the programmes through the federal budget or the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
The programmes are expected to provide grants ranging from Rs100 million to Rs200 million for 18 months to startups, universities and small and medium-sized enterprises.
The House was also informed about a plan to establish a Pakistan Venture Capital Fund with an estimated cost of $20 million to attract private investment in IT startups.
Clarify Aseefa’s 5G criticismMake the lead more news-focused