The Pakistan Digital Authority, in collaboration with the Ministry of Law and Justice, convened the first Regulators Consultative Session on Machine-Readable Legislation, Akoma Ntoso, and Policy-as-Code at PDA Headquarters in Islamabad. The session was built around the idea that machine readable law has the potential to change how regulation reaches the people it governs, allowing a rule to be found, applied, and cited without requiring manual reinterpretation each time it is referenced or enforced.
The session brought together technical experts from several of Pakistan’s major regulatory institutions, including the Federal Board of Revenue, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, the Competition Commission of Pakistan, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority. Representatives from these bodies considered how structured, machine readable law could strengthen the way regulation is developed, maintained, and applied across different areas of government, reflecting the wide range of sectors these institutions oversee, from taxation and financial services to energy and competition policy.
During the session, participants took part in an interactive demonstration of the machine readable legislation application, exploring practical use cases specific to their own regulatory institutions while examining the legal, technical, and AI related considerations tied to implementing this kind of system. Discussions also extended to the broader potential of machine readable legislation to improve regulatory clarity, institutional efficiency, business compliance, and the overall accessibility of law for both government bodies and the businesses or citizens required to comply with it. This practical, use case driven approach allowed each participating institution to consider how the technology might apply directly to the specific regulatory functions they manage.
The consultation forms part of PDA’s broader engagement under the National Digital Master Plan and contributes to the sectoral plans guiding Pakistan’s wider digital transformation efforts. Organizers described the session as laying the groundwork for LegalTech and RegTech development in Pakistan, an approach that would allow law and regulation to function as structured digital infrastructure rather than remaining static documents that require manual interpretation each time they are applied. The session concluded with participating institutions expressing a shared resolve to continue this work collaboratively and translate the underlying concept into practical reform across Pakistan’s broader regulatory ecosystem, with organizers noting that machine readable law has already changed how several other countries publish and maintain their legislation, positioning this session as an early step for Pakistan along a similar path toward a more connected and digitally enabled regulatory environment.
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