Pakistan Digital Authority has appointed Aalishan Akhtar as Executive Director for Digital Public Infrastructure Strategy and Lifecycle, bringing experience spanning private and public sector organizations in Pakistan and abroad. His career has covered digital policy, technology strategy, institutional development, regulatory transformation, and the delivery of large scale public sector programs.
At the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Akhtar contributed to the development of Pakistan’s Cloud First Policy, one of the leading national frameworks for secure, scalable cloud adoption across the public sector. He also drafted the core structure of the National AI Policy, contributed to the National Cybersecurity Policy, and helped design the World Bank funded Digital Economy Enhancement Project, three initiatives that have shaped Pakistan’s broader digital governance agenda in recent years.
At Ignite National Technology Fund, Akhtar helped translate policy into functioning institutions, contributing to the establishment of the Pakistan Startup Fund, one of the leading co-investment mechanisms in the country designed to de-risk early stage capital for startups. He was also involved in setting up StartupConnect.pk, the Centre of Excellence for Gaming and Animation, and the Civic Innovation and Technology Labs under the Digital Economy Enhancement Project. Most recently, at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, he led technology modernization initiatives across regulatory and enterprise platforms, strengthening digital services, institutional capabilities, and technology governance. Earlier in his career, he worked in Canada, including a stint at Morgan Stanley supporting high performance electronic trading infrastructure.
Alongside his practitioner background, Akhtar is currently a PhD scholar at the National Defence University Islamabad, where his research focuses on developing a whole-of-government framework for digital transformation in Pakistan, using Pakistan Digital Authority as his primary case study. His broader research interests include collaboration frameworks for digital policymaking, federal-provincial coordination on digital transformation, and digital maturity assessments of government organizations. The appointment adds a figure with direct experience across policy design, institution building, and regulatory technology modernization to Pakistan Digital Authority’s leadership team as it continues expanding its digital public infrastructure agenda.
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