A delegation from Pakistan IT Industry Association (P@SHA) has visited Kado Tech Hub in Hunza, according to a post on its LinkedIn page. Muhammad Zohaib Khan, Chair of the Special Initiatives Committee and a member of the Central Executive Committee, was invited to hold an awareness session on talent development and the digital economy for freelancers and IT companies working at the hub. P@SHA says that improving digital exports in the region rests on two core pillars, digital infrastructure and community building. The delegation also included Nadia Iqbal, a former member of the Central Executive Committee, Kashoon Leeza, Director Policy and Strategic Initiatives, and Syeda Safa H., Lead Skills Development, and it was received by Sultan Madad, Board Chairman of Kado Tech Hub, and Karimullah Baig, its chief executive officer.
According to P@SHA, the hub is home to product-focused and service-focused freelancers and companies. It has also introduced a digital nomad model and is open to companies from across Pakistan and abroad. The visit followed P@SHA’s engagement with the Secretary IT of Gilgit-Baltistan on a master plan for the region’s IT sector, in which the association presented its diagnostic report and proposed measures on connectivity, infrastructure, workforce readiness, and market access. The Hunza visit lets the association hear from people working in the sector on the ground, and the post says that P@SHA remains committed to supporting the growth of Hunza’s tech community and the region’s digital transformation. It does not say how many people attended the session or what follow-up is planned.
Hunza already has several digital facilities. The Karakorum Area Development Organization (KADO), a non-profit established in 1998 in the Hunza Valley, runs a digital hub on the first floor of its building, which Arab News described as a kind of IT park for remote workers, digital nomads, and gig workers. Its manager told the outlet that the hub offers fast internet and a solar-backed, round-the-clock facility that can hold up to 70 people during busy summer months, and KADO said it had taught IT skills to more than 1,000 people, about 60 percent of them women. These figures date from 2023 and the post does not say whether the Kado Tech Hub is the same facility, so readers should treat the link between the two as unconfirmed.
Other projects have added to the region’s digital infrastructure. Prince Rahim Aga Khan inaugurated a Software Technology Park in Nasirabad, Hunza, in June 2024, which provides uninterrupted power, high-speed internet, and co-working space for start-ups and freelancers and is meant to serve as the centre of a hub-and-spokes model linking other IT facilities in remote areas. The Pakistan Army and the Special Communications Organization have also set up a freelancing hub in Sost. For P@SHA, whose diagnostic report found that power cuts and unstable broadband were the main constraints on companies in Gilgit-Baltistan, the visit shows its interest in working with local hubs, though it has not announced new programmes or funding for them.
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