The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) team at Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) conducted a WASL Technical Onboarding Workshop with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) at the headquarters of PTA. The authority said that the workshop was a key step towards integrating PTA with WASL, the National Data Exchange Layer of Pakistan. It forms part of the ongoing work of PDA to bring critical organizations onto the exchange layer, and it is one of the sessions through which institutions are prepared to join the system. The announcement was shared by PDA, which thanked the PTA team for its active participation and constructive engagement during the session.
WASL enables government institutions to exchange data securely while maintaining institutional ownership and control. PDA described its federated, data blind architecture as being designed to ensure that data remains under the custody of the institution that is responsible for it. The central exchange layer facilitates encrypted data exchange without retaining the exchanged data. This means that when two institutions share information through WASL, the information passes through the layer in an encrypted form, and the layer does not keep a copy, so the institution that owns the data stays in charge of it.
According to PDA, every institution that joins WASL is one less silo for citizens and businesses to work around. The statement refers to the problem of government bodies that hold information in separate systems, which can force citizens and businesses to provide the same details to several offices. By connecting institutions to a common exchange layer, the authority aims to reduce this need, and the onboarding of PTA is part of the effort to extend the layer to more organizations that hold information which others may need.
PDA said that it looks forward to progressing towards the onboarding of PTA and its integration with WASL. The workshop at the headquarters of PTA is therefore an early stage in the process, and it was followed by the stated intention to move on to the next steps of onboarding. The authority has described the programme as ongoing, with critical organizations being brought onto the exchange layer one after another, and the session with PTA adds the telecom regulator to the group of institutions that are working with the DPI team on the technical preparation for joining WASL.
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