Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja has been named Industry Champion of the Year at The Fast Mode Awards 2026, according to a post by the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication and a statement reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP). The award is the highest individual honour of the programme and is presented to one person worldwide each year. According to the ministry’s statement, it recognises outstanding leadership and contributions to the telecommunications, satellite, and data centre industries. The Fast Mode, a global technology media brand, said that this year’s awards drew more than 500 company nominations from over 60 countries, with entries competing across 11 categories for more than 80 awards.
The Fast Mode’s executive editor, Tara Neal, said in the announcement of the leadership results that the winners are leaders who anticipate change and champion continuous innovation as the industry goes through a transformation driven by AI and autonomous intelligence. The Fast Mode describes its awards as the industry’s largest independent recognition programme, and nominations are assessed under its own awards assessment framework. The leadership categories include chief executive, technology, marketing, finance, information, security, and AI officers, as well as women and young leader awards. The announcement lists Khawaja as the Industry Champion of the Year, representing the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication of Pakistan, and does not publish the scoring behind the decision.
The ministry linked the recognition to results in the sector. 24NewsHD reported that Pakistan’s IT and IT-enabled services exports reached a record $4.6 billion in fiscal year 2025-26, and that the IT sector recorded a trade surplus of $3.9 billion, the largest among service sectors. The same report said Pakistan improved its position by 27 places in the International Telecommunication Union’s ICT Development Index 2026. Those figures come from government and media reports on the sector, and the award itself is a recognition by an industry media organisation and not a measure of those results. Khawaja has led the ministry as Federal Minister since February 2025 after serving as Minister of State from March 2024.
Her recent work has included the 5G spectrum auction in March, which sold 480 MHz of spectrum for $507 million according to Dawn, and the commercial 5G rollout that followed, along with the National Digital Masterplan being developed by the Pakistan Digital Authority and her travel to South Korea last month to meet Google and World Bank officials. The award gives the ministry an international credential to cite as it promotes Pakistan as a technology destination under its Digital Pakistan and Tech Destination Pakistan campaigns. The ministry’s post does not name the criteria the judges used for the Industry Champion title or say who nominated the minister, so details on how the winner was selected would need to come from The Fast Mode.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
