Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja has unveiled a series of significant national targets at the Paklaunch UNConference 2026, held at the Mövenpick Hotel in Islamabad and powered by Aik Digital. Speaking during a fireside chat with Tkxel’s Chief Executive Officer, the minister outlined Pakistan’s ambitions across artificial intelligence workforce development, computing infrastructure, and software export growth, framing the announcements as part of a coherent national strategy to reposition Pakistan as a serious player in the global digital economy.
At the centre of the minister’s address was a commitment to training one million Pakistanis in artificial intelligence, a target that reflects the scale of investment the government intends to make in human capital as the foundation of its technology ambitions. On the infrastructure side, the minister confirmed that Pakistan is actively working to acquire graphics processing units and build the computing backbone necessary to support an artificial intelligence-driven digital ecosystem. The emphasis on GPU acquisition is particularly significant given that access to high-performance computing infrastructure has emerged globally as a critical determinant of a country’s ability to develop, train, and deploy artificial intelligence systems at scale, and Pakistan’s current compute capacity remains a limiting factor for both the public and private sectors.
On the economic front, the minister revealed that Pakistan’s software export target has been raised substantially, with the current figure standing at $3.8 billion and the long-term goal set at $15 billion. To support the business environment required to reach that target, the government is working in coordination with the Special Investment Facilitation Council and the State Bank of Pakistan to modify Form M, the foreign exchange declaration form that has historically created friction for technology exporters receiving payments from international clients. Simplifying that process is seen as a prerequisite for the kind of export volume growth the government is targeting, as cumbersome banking procedures have long been cited by Pakistan’s freelancers and technology companies as a significant barrier to formalising and scaling their international revenue. The Paklaunch UNConference, which has grown from a WhatsApp group into one of Pakistan’s most prominent startup and investor platforms, provided the minister with an audience of founders, investors, and industry leaders best positioned to hold these commitments to account in the months ahead.
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