Raheela Baqai Group Director of Business Development, Pathfinder Group
Asalam-o-Alikum, good morning, a warm welcome to Amaanibagh (Residence of the Sehgal Family). This house is a gift of love from a grandfather to a granddaughter. No other child can have a legacy to follow what has been left to Amaani by her grandfather, none other than Ikram Sehgal, who is hosting this event today. If you get the time and walk around the grounds, you can see love reflected in every part of this place. I request Mr Ikram Sehgal, Co-Chairman of Pathfinder Group, to formally welcome you all at Amaanibagh.
Ikram Sehgal Co-Chairman, Pathfinder Group
Bismillāhir-raḥmānir-raḥīm, General Shakeel, Mr Ammar Jaffari, guests, I warmly welcome students from Lawrence College, my alma mater, I am grateful for your presence, as well as the students from Roots Millennium and other guests gathered here. This is the second time we are holding a seminar here. At the moment, we are going through a stage where we are still finding out the ways to take the kinks out of all the problems here, and it’s good that we have a young crowd here that can not only contribute to us but also advise to this nation on how to be punctual. I’m not going to go into the technicalities of the topic, I leave that to Mr Jaffari. When we have an event like this, expectations rise and improve the quality we maintain among ourselves, taking it to the next level.
Considering the percentage of youth in Pakistan today and its quality, I believe we have reason for hope. I will say that many people think our neighbours are outstripping us, and many people are talking about the brain drain. I don’t talk about it at all. If you can send three people out, it is good. If you can send thirty people out, it’s good. For every three people, we’ll have another ten who can take over from them. For every thirty people, we will have three hundred taken over from them. Our country has tremendous talent and it is recognized in a way that there is no such thing as brain drain. People who leave this country contribute back to this country. So, a reverse cycle goes on whether this will be intellectual property or the matter of sending remittances. You can see that in the early stages, it’s the workers who toil in their muscles to build the roads and buildings in places like Dubai, Qatar, Riyadh, and Jeddah.
Today, the brain power is going out, and that should not deject us. I am very impressed. I am going to be a little prejudiced about my college, Lawrence College. When I graduated from there, we didn’t pay much attention to academic excellence, the focus was character building. Today, it is amazing the amount of academic excellence that is there, and Lawrence College is one of the examples other than the likes of Roots Millennium, Future World Colleges and other colleges in this country.
So, do not be misled by people who come and tell you that there is no hope for this country, there is always hope for this country. And let me tell you why. Our population is 250 million, the world has 8 billion people, and these 250 million people are surrounded nearby by 5 billion people. Whether it’s South Asia, Central Asia, or Middle East Asia, we are the bridge in between because we are a part of South Asia, we are part of Central Asia, and a part of the Middle East North Africa (MENA), and because of all that we are a bridge between regions. But obviously, we have problems as this bridge is not allowed to develop to its true potential. Still, it is for young people to take it to the next level, not for old people like me and Mr Jaffari. As they say, “Old soldiers can never die, they just fade away.” Like this quote, we should fade away and leave the future to you people.
I would like to thank you people for being here this morning. It will take some time for people to understand the route here (to reach Amaanibagh), but people will eventually understand the route. You can also see that there is an auditorium here, a tennis court, a basketball court, a swimming pool along with the gymnasium, a squash court and a place to play cricket. Since it’s Jummah today, please go to our mosque to say your prayer. You will see what is being done here to make this a true place where people can come and positively mix and contribute to this nation.
Once again thank you, Mr Jaffari and General Shakeel, for being here. Thank you Raheela, for your nice words. Thank you all for coming, particularly students from Lawrence College.
Raheela Baqai – Moderator
Thank you so much, Mr Sehgal. I think you very nicely and epically put it, our future, our youth, will take the reins of this country forward. They are presented here very rightly and in a very large number and I’m sure he is very fond of his alma mater. I think he gets happy when he sees and interacts with students from Lawrence College. It’s a fact that you cannot forget your first love.
Cybersecurity has certainly become a concern in today’s digital world and I think it is a need of the time to create awareness about it. We must be cautious while working in the cyber and digital world. I request Mr Ammar Jaffari to shed light on this topic and share his thoughts. How did he come to this topic that he should create awareness about? What is the importance of it?
Ammar Jaffari Founder, Digital Pakistan
Bismillāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi, I began with the name of Allah, who is the most merciful. Firstly, I would like to thank Sehgal Sahib for giving us this opportunity to talk to so many young people sitting here. Without wasting time, I’ll start with what Sehgal Sahib said, “It’s a defining moment for Pakistan.” Why the world is looking towards us? Why CPEC is passing through here? Out of the six routes of BRI, CPEC is one of the best possible routes. Currently, we are out of BRICS, but I’m very sure that with the wisdom of Mr Ikram Sehgal and experienced people like me, we can bring you back to BRICS. There is Global South as well, which is China’s initiative, and we will discuss it during our talk here today. We have a lot of PhD doctors sitting here, I am very thankful to all of them as well as to the gentlemen from Lawrence College and also students from Hazara University. Our audience is youth today. We hear a lot of noise everywhere on the media and other channels, our objective is to put this noise into music and trust me only youth can do it.
Sehgal Sahib is a good friend of mine and we have a passion for leaving a legacy before leaving this world. Trust me, you people can do much better than us. I was the Additional Director of FIA and the Head of Cyber-Wing. I will not give much of my introduction just Google my name, Ammar Jaffari, and you will know more about me and my area of work. There is no need for me to give an introduction.
Let me tell you one thing before I finish here, I go to China very frequently. I am working there and the youth will be honoured to give this message to the people that they have selected me as a member of their ‘Specialized Committee on AI,’ and I am the only foreigner outside China on this committee right now. They picked me up not because I was the former Additional DG FIA. In a last meeting, a lady stood up from the crowd of more than 3000 people, she was a Pakistani from Lahore and said, Ammar Jaffari, I’ve searched your name on Google, and I saw that you are doing so many things, you are in SDGs, you are in emerging technologies, and you are in cybersecurity. How would you like to be defined? I asked her if she meant ‘how would I like to be defined after my death?’ She replied I didn’t want to say it, but actually, I meant it. I told her I would like to be defined as a teacher because a teacher is a person who never loses his values.
There are three powers in the world. The first is authority, which I have already enjoyed for forty years. Second is money, which I have enjoyed, and I am a self-sustained person with no issues right now, and the third is the knowledge that I am looking for. When I am looking for knowledge, I don’t only go after knowledge, I chase it and go to the extent. Bhutta Sahib and Dr Asma are PhD doctors, and there are a lot of other PhD doctors around me too, I also get afraid of them sometimes. I usually tell them that you people teach only, you don’t guide. My son is a Stanford University graduate with a company in America. Recently, I went to his office and asked a lady working there who was an AI PhD doctor from Korea, if my son was paying her anything. She said, “No, he doesn’t pay me a dollar.” Why was she there then? She was there to learn.
So, I humbly request all the PhD doctors sitting out there. You people have been awarded a PhD degree to guide something to the youth, and they will execute it better. This will be the best combination. My fellows, it’s my desire today that when you leave this hall, all of you should be fully motivated and charged to do something not only for yourself but for others. If someone says in front of me, what will I get? I put a cross in front of that person’s name so that he would not be seen afterwards.
We don’t want anything from this country, this country has given us everything, and now it’s time to pay back before leaving. Youth representatives are sitting here and I feel very contented when I attend your gatherings because you people are doing something that is adding value to society. I am giving you people my word that if you call me at 2 o’clock in the night, I won’t ask you why you called, I’ll say where are you, I’m coming, because “Your actions should be louder than your words.”
Today, there will be three sessions. The immediate session on Emerging Technologies will be moderated by Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman. I will moderate the other session and discuss Cybersecurity, for which I have also tried to invite the relevant people from the FIA department. The third and last session will be on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We will also shed light on China’s Global South initiative, which includes all the BRI, BRICS, and others. I was watching a Davos clip that has been played here in which General Musharraf talked about the same thing, which we now wanted to discuss.
I wish we couldn’t have wasted our 20 years. But we don’t need to blame those who have wasted them. We have to move on with motivation to do better. I say thank you to the person who talks to me controversially. I don’t have time to work, I don’t have time to love people, so how can I hate people? With that, I would like to proceed to the first session.
Raheela Baqai – Moderator
Thank you so much, Mr Jaffari. You covered the entire day and its sessions very beautifully, succinctly, and briefly with everyone. We appreciate that. We will start our first session with a panel discussion on the topic ‘Future of Emerging Technologies: Opportunities, Challenges and Ethical Implications.’ I request the moderator of this session, Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman, CEO of ITSOLERA, to please come up on the stage and invite his fellow speakers to start the discussion.
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman CEO, ITSolera / Moderator
Bismillah-i-Rehman-i-Raheem and Asalam-o-Alikum. I am Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman, the CEO of ITSOLERA. Today’s topic is the Use of Emerging Technologies for Cyber Secure Digital Pakistan 2030.
What are Emerging Technologies? They are Artificial Intelligence in which the world is already working and allude. As university students or graduates, we still learn about machine learning and Python. Our company wanted to serve as a bridge between universities and industries. Other than that, we also wanted to work on the Internet of Things (IOTs), which is also a part of emerging technologies and cybersecurity and right now the world is working on interdisciplinary research. Many PhD doctors here in Pakistan say it’s not our domain. I did my PhD in China, where we used to work on different devices. The Chinese people have traditionally focused on material sciences, while we have concentrated on developing devices.
They create the materials, and we build the devices from them. I would like to introduce my first panellist, Ms Masooma Ali, She is a cybersecurity specialist and has obtained her CH Ethical Hacking certification from the EC-Council. Additionally, she serves as a trainer at NAVTTC and TEVTA. Next, I would like to present Dr Asma, who holds a PhD and works as an Assistant Director and Professor of Academics at the Digital Health Service Academy. Our next panellist is Mr Waqas, who has developed 122 artificial intelligence products, AI applies to various industries. As I mentioned previously, cybersecurity is also a key aspect of emerging technologies. Therefore, I would like to welcome Ammar Jaffari as one of my panellists. My first question is for Ms Masooma. You work in a government department and provide training on ethical hacking and cyber security in NAVTTC and TEVTA, and mostly youth are sitting here. If any college or university students want to start their careers, where do you think they should start? How much improvement is necessary in the cybersecurity courses we are currently teaching?
Masooma Ali – Cybersecurity Specialist Ethical Hacking Trainer, NAVTTC & TEVTA
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. First of all, we have to clear our minds about two things. Firstly, we have this concept that even if you don’t have a technical background, you can learn cybersecurity. To some extent, it’s true that you can learn. But in my opinion, if you are not technically strong enough, you are not supposed to perform cybersecurity tasks.
The second important thing is that you can still learn cybersecurity if you don’t know any programming language. I think cybersecurity can be learned without a programming language. The major drawback is the way of training in which the work is taught on different tools only, let’s suppose information gathering, scanning, and different modules and when that tool is over, or if it doesn’t work, that person cannot excel in the field of cybersecurity.
In my opinion, first, one should learn networking and at least one program language. I recommend Python. Since, after learning Python scripting, one can merge cybersecurity with AI. You people can make your own tools and cyber-related products rather than using someone else’s tools, which helps to work on cybersecurity and cyber development.
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman – Moderator
Thank you so much, Ms Masooma. My next question is for Sir Ammar. He is also from the cybersecurity sector and has played the most important role in building the Cyber Security Wing in Pakistan. The world has already moved to AI practices, and I believe you all will agree on this too, Artificial Intelligence is dependent on data. At the moment, we are talking about learning cybersecurity and protecting ourselves, but hackers throughout the world are hacking and stealing through AI. What are your comments on AI and Cybersecurity?
Ammar Jaffari – Guest Speaker
Thank you so much. Somebody asked me, tell me about AI. I tried to teach them AI in three minutes and could easily do that. Now I will come to the question. What is AI doing basically? AI is a deep machine learning that includes ChatGPT, etc., the basis of which gives human beings the potential to use the machines. That’s it. Whatever we used to do, now we expect the machines to do for us because there is so much volume of information that if we try to do it ourselves, we will fail. There are two types of cybersecurity strategies. One is reactive (what we are doing right now), such as when an incident takes place, an inquiry is conducted, and somebody is held responsible for it, the other one is proactive, and AI provides you an opportunity to exercise it. Right now, we can tell that this bank is going to be hacked after three weeks.
Now, a big question arises. How are they doing it? It is based on data and data analytics because data is knowledge. With as much data as possible in your system, you can make better and more informed decisions. To give you an example to understand the process of how data predicts the next level attack, there is an old term, Eugene’s Theory. It works on what makes you happy, what makes you sad, and how careful you are, with this data one can plan anything about you. That’s how the hackers associate themselves with the organizations. What is their seed solution, what is their soft solution, etc.? I will not go into the technicalities, but all these things are orchestrated with an organization’s cybersecurity. Hackers will take advantage of your physical access system if it is vulnerable. For example, you have put a tab monitor, and then any IP address will be monitored if hackers try to surf at what you are doing and store the data. That is AI. Some systems monitor it and hand it over to somebody and that somebody will have big data that will tell at which time that person was there. If he was there at 2 AM, it means that he knew that during the daytime, the security system would be alerted, and they would catch me. There are so many things, but I will answer your question in one sentence, AI transfers your reactive strategy into a proactive strategy.
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman:
Thank you so much, Sir, for your valuable comments on the use of AI for cybersecurity. Now, I would like to ask Dr Asma, who works in the health sector for AI. What is the future of AI or emerging technologies? What are the challenges and opportunities that we can face?
Dr Asma Umar Khayaam Founder & CEO of AUK
Asalam-o-Alaikum. My name is Dr Asma Umar Khayaam. Mr Sehgal was talking about brain drain, I am that Pakistani who was born and brought up abroad, and immediately after completing my PhD from Upstate Medical University, New York, I returned to Pakistan. I joined Women’s University in Bagh Azad Kashmir, which is really on the outskirts. I served there for two and a half years. My PhD is in biochemistry and molecular biology. I have been associated with different academic institutes as an Assistant Professor like Women’s University, Quaid-eAzam University, Rawalpindi Medical University, and Health Services Academy.
Dr Hafeez has talked about interdisciplinary collaborations, I am one of those people who believe in them. Being from a hardcore health sector, I started learning about AI. I can proudly say that for the first time in Pakistan, we have introduced a diploma in digital health in which we are training doctors about AI. In Pakistan, the health sector is the most ignored segment of AI, and we need more digitalization. The world has shifted to Health Care 4.2, and we are still moving around from one doctor to another with the prescription. The first thing I have contributed and worked around at Rawalpindi Medical University is trying to move from the paperwork to the electronic record, as Mr Jaffari said that AI works on the data sets.
Still, the health sector needed to provide more data, and unfortunately, even during the pandemic, we were unaware of anything. Pakistan is very good at adapting, and now we can see the Dengue Alerts and HCV Alerts, etc., on which I have also worked. Now, we have started gathering data from provinces all over Pakistan and using predictive analytics from the AI after putting that data, it started predicting what is about to come.
The role of AI and predictive analytics in the healthcare sector is to predict diseases, make diagnoses, and many other applications. All of us carry those devices. We can check our blood pressure from our iPhones. These are all the applications of AI in the digital healthcare sector. Although we are slow, Pakistan is still working a lot on digitalization. If we connect cybersecurity with health care, the foremost important thing is our medical data, just like banks and other organizational data.
Cybersecurity is still an unattended area in the health sector. We still face data breaching issues, where we are trying to put all the hospitals into paperless record keeping, etc. Since private hospitals have started practising, we also want public healthcare to be in this practice. The biggest challenge we will face is cybersecurity, and cloud-based data transferred in, should be more secure. I suggest that we should adopt blockchain technology since the world is already there, and we are still only discussing it.
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman:
Thank you so much, Madam. If you people know about IOTs, it is about connecting different sensors and making a structure. If you combine and connect different body sensors in health care, let’s suppose blood pressure, pulse rate, temperature, sugar level, etc., with a system, it will create an IOT device. If, let’s suppose, the pacemaker that we put in a patient’s heart gets hacked, it can be hacked. If we look at Lebanon, pagers started blasting, and this shows the advancement of things. Soon, we will be going to have a cyber-war. According to research, cyber-war can kill people and we can see this in 2024 as well. My next question is for Mr Waqas, who has completed 122 products related to AI. Firstly, I would like you to tell us the pathway from where we can start and what AI is in the end.
Muhammad Waqas – AI Engineeer
Assalam-o-Alaikum. Whenever we talk about AI, the first thing that comes to mind is Python. We always start with a programming language. University students are already familiar with the programming language. Still, those not in university or considering starting a career should at least start with one computer language. And after that when you lead towards AI, there come the concepts. We already have builtin libraries because people who are in industries use built-in libraries.
The ones in universities do research and make things from scratch. So, the starting point is that you have started a course in machine learning, and gradually, you move to deep learning. There are two main pillars of AI, one is computer vision, and the other one is NLP (Natural Language Processing), which we are talking about. If someone wants to learn the separate concepts of computer vision and NLP, they can easily learn them. From there, you will be merging into generative AI.
Nowadays, industries are working on updated models, and I think you people must have heard about the launch of Liama 3.2 on the 3rd and 4th of November. Now, the medical and healthcare industry has many solutions, but the ones who are learning shouldn’t think that we have nothing to do. The problem for you people has been raised now because when research is done, it creates an overall area, and we start thinking that after the creation of the domain, the AI has ended, but it’s not the reality. For now, the algorithms don’t know what is happening inside them, because we do the updating by putting the formulas, the moment algorithms start knowing what is happening inside them then there comes a point they will start upgrading themselves. When they start changing themselves, that point will be the end of the world.
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman: Well, thank you so much, Waqas, for explaining in detail. Most people aren’t able to understand computer vision and NLP. If I summarize the whole thing, machine learning is the basic thing. One should learn Python (Coding), and it is also compulsory to learn graphical and mathematical representation, and statistical probability because AI gives predictions based on old data. Those predictions are of the machine learning, if the data increases, we bring in the neural networks which is the part of the deep learning.
As Waqas said, divide the learning into NLP and computer vision. NLP is a Large Language Model (LLM), which includes chatbots, and computer vision cameras, which detect movements of, let’s suppose number plates if we consider a security system. The world is working on the combination of all these things, and the ones who want to gain any projects from freelancing are based on generative AI. The system is self-thinking and working in generative AI rather than giving predictions. We have students of Lawrence College sitting with us here. I wanted to change the orientation of the question now since Elon Musk has announced that in 2026, the robots will be working for humans for 10-15 dollars. Two questions arise here. Will we still need humans, or can we use robots to work in houses and offices for 10 to 15 dollars? There will be no hassle of getting tired, asking for a salary, etc. We can easily pay online and get the services. Secondly, there will be no human warfare. Countries will fight against each other through robots. Mr Jaffari, I would like to take your comments on it.
Ammar Jaffari:
The word IOTs is being used. Just forget about it. There is a new thing coming, which is the Internet of Media Things (IOMT). Start searching for it. It’s the future of IOTs. Why did IOTs come into the market? We used to say this was the monitor, keyboard, CPU, etc., and when these things increased, people started calling them the Internet of Things. In 2025, the IOMT will reach the point where all the best professionals in the world will shift to it. Now I will answer your question. First of all, you can’t stop time and technology. If we all want, it shouldn’t be 4 o’clock today, this is not possible. Don’t try to stop technology, let it go the way it is going. When I was studying in school, there used to be a TV program called Star Trek, a person of my age must have remembered it and we used to watch it after getting permission from our parents. In that program, they showed the same thing which is happening now. The ones to whom we are saying robots will be called aliens in the future, but this is true. Why are we all sitting here and calling it emerging technology? With every rising sun, we are seeing new technology.
Our country’s current dilemma is based on the frontline. Where is that frontline? It’s in the schools, the next is in colleges, and then it is in universities. We keep on thinking that this kid will start studying in school, college, or university, and people from the university say very calmly that they will learn it in the market. I interview students daily and ask them what they know, and they simply reply, “You teach us.” This all made us think about the predictions of what will happen in the future. Now, let’s come to the warfare. Elon Musk has rightly said, and I’ve met him in person in America. He has done everything he said he would. Now he is saying he will go to Mars, which he will be doing, and he has started working on it too. He has made Tesla (electric vehicle) and sold it out. Now he is saying that the next war will be cyber wars. Just think for a moment, if the internet goes down, your whole banking system will collapse, your NADRA will collapse, the whole airport system will collapse, and all your imports, etc., will get affected because of the only reason that your internet isn’t working. Is it not a cyber war?
The domain (.iq) of Iraq was closed by America within three minutes. I had the proud honour of working with the best intelligence service in the world. I know very well how they do it and how the internet works. There are 13 route servers, and then there is one route server that translates your IP address to the exact location, they only switch it off. If you people want to save your country from this destruction, try to make your own products. Today we are using the products of others. Let me tell you a fact, we don’t have the domain (.pk), and I am sorry to disappoint the youth sitting here. It was announced that countries could take their domains, and (.pk) was our domain, and we had to pay 12,000 dollars for it. I was in service then, and I went to all those people who could pay that price, but everyone refused. I am telling you the history because no one else will tell it in the future. I was very worried and contacted everyone who I thought could buy the domain.
A person purchased it luckily, he is a Pakistani, and his name is Arshad. I was afraid that an Indian could have purchased and blackmailed us. I am personally in contact with Arshad, and I know the place where he works. I heard about the fire break at that place. I got scared, and I immediately called Arshad at 2 o’clock and asked him what happened. He said, don’t worry, we have already transferred it, and (.pk) is safe. Today, the government of Pakistan wants to buy that domain from him. I have also been in negotiations many times, but why would he give it to you now since you missed the opportunity?
We have made a lot of blunders in the past, and I categorically accept them. The youth needs to understand this thing that talks about the present time. Today, Pakistani has (.pk), and it is safe in his (Arshad’s) company. I have often asked government officials to look into this matter, but it’s not only our country that doesn’t have it. There are many other countries, too.
Now, let’s come to cyber warfare. The first thing that an enemy does is incapacitate your critical infrastructure, which stops the functionality of the state. Now, think about which of your critical infrastructures includes all of your SCADA systems, electricity systems, banking system reservations, etc. I am repeating that we have to watch the national interest, and we shouldn’t be going to a single global thing. I am again repeating the point from where I have started and mentioned CPEC, BRI, BRICS, etc. as Sehgal Sahib also mentioned beautifully that why other countries are looking towards Pakistan, why do we have a lot of involvement of West in our politics that if Trump wins the elections, he will be going to announce something. I want to say this to the sitting youth, please ask us since your question might be useful for anyone sitting here.
Student:
Sir, my question is, we used to hear that robots would replace humans, but even after the security camera installation, we still need a security guard outside a bank or a university. Please explain this scenario.
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman:
You are trying to say that robots cannot replace humans. Let me explain the scenario to you. The people who are connected with emerging technologies cannot be replaced. Here, I will give you a small example. There is an application made by many people that will vanish the call centres, that application can install AI data with multiple voices and make 1 lakh calls daily. You just have to generate the leads and give that data to the application in the form of an Excel sheet. It will call automatically to all those leads and provide you with transparent responses. Instead of hiring 100 employees, I can get a subscription to that application for 100 dollars. Humans can be replaced, but people associated with them can only be replaced when we make more advanced things. This is what we are predicting in our research and the work that we are doing.
Ammar Jaffari:
Before proceeding further, I would like to introduce a girl to all of you who have arrived in this hall. A few months back, China told me that we wanted to pick up talented youth throughout the world. I didn’t know this girl. I’d just posted on my Facebook page that whoever wanted to take part in this contest in China, could apply. Many of the people applied for it.
After filtering the data, I came up with 30 people, all of whom were youths, we interviewed them and sent those names to China. This girl was selected there on merit, and out of 192 UN countries, only 18 students were selected. She is one of them, her name is Farah, and she is going with me to an international conference. Farah has done exceptional things in the field of AI. Her father is sitting here. He is a Defense Officer. I feel so proud when I see her videos on the WIC website.
Farah: Aslam-o-Alikum, everyone, my name is Farah, and I am from Dadu Sindh, Pakistan. I got my bachelor’s degree in information technology from COMSATS University Islamabad. During my degree, I realized that I have an interest in AI and digital technologies, so I started doing various courses and internships.
I met with Sir Ammar and we have made a project collaboratively named PakGPT. It is an AI conversational model and was an ambitious idea that was transformed into a tool with Sir Ammar’s guidance for social empowerment. The basic objective of this tool is to empower those people who are traditionally left out of digital technologies and AI practices. For this, we targeted the rural areas since there is an issue of internet connectivity, so our tool works on low bandwidth as well.
Raheela Baqai:
Our next panel discussion is on “Use of Emerging Technologies to Achieve the Targets on SDGs before 2030.” Shah Rukh Khan, CEO of SDGs Academy Pakistan, will moderate this discussion. Please come up on the stage and invite all your panellists.
Shah Rukh Khan: Thank you so much, everyone. Most of the participants have little idea of the SDGs. I would like to start with Sir Israr. What are your organization’s key initiatives for rural development? How do you see Emerging Technologies being integrated into those efforts to accelerate the progress of the SDGs?
Israr Mohammad Khan Director General, AHK NCRD
Asalam-o-Alikum everyone. First of all, I would like to thank Mr Shah Rukh, Ammar Jaffari, Mr Sehgal, and all the sitting audience and panellists. My name is Israr Mohammad Khan. I went to the School of International and Public Affairs at Colombia University. I have worked for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. After coming back, I worked with UNDP, and then I joined NCRD. Its full name is Akhtar Hameed Khan National Centre for Rural Development. I would ask the youth to search Akhtar Hameed Khan and get to know who he was. I would like to say that NCRD works for the capacity building of rural development and poverty alleviation on national and federal levels and it is also a linked institution of two governmental bodies as well.
One of the institutions is the African Asian Rural Development Organization (ARDO) which is a body of 32 countries, and Pakistan is its member as well, the other institution is the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and Pacific (CIRDAP) which is the body of 17 countries, and Pakistan is its member also. We have an additional mandate of bringing the people from the member countries of inter-governmental bodies, including Africa, Northern Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, the Pacific Ocean countries, and our South Asia in ARDO.
We are also trying to bring the people from their Islamabad-based diplomatic missions because we not only invite the people of these countries but also give exposure to our national projects. Also, we send people from different provinces on the fully funded development opportunities that these inter-governmental bodies provide us. These are some of the NCRD’s initiatives, but I would like to address the youth sitting here, as mentioned here, that Recharge, Reinvent, and Rebuild Pakistan. Please have confidence in our country and our Indigenous things. Pakistan is going through a difficult phase, and many of our youth have lost trust in Pakistan, but trust me, our country is still enriched with natural resources, and out of 200 countries in the world, we are one of the top 30 countries in terms of area. As per the population, we are the 6th largest country in the world and we are not a small country. We have a wealth of natural resources and knowledge and believe me, we have a lot of talent in our country, but we lack hard work and honesty. We only want to understand Quaid-e-Azam’s lesson of Unity, Faith, and Discipline to eliminate our disorganized and disoriented behaviour.
I will cover much of the topic in the question and answer session. I just wanted to end my conversation by saying that from the NCRD’s platform, we are bringing people to the indigenous organic lifestyle. We completely accept the role of AI, cybersecurity, digitalization, etc. Still, the significance and relevance of human beings will remain there, so our core initiative is confidently bringing people back to the indigenous and organic way of life. Unfortunately, we have that complex that anything Western is superior and anything Indigenous is inferior. Please come out of it when you people will be travelling the world and visiting different countries for the sake of studies or jobs, etc., rather than taking long to realize all that, start learning quickly.
Shah Rukh Khan:
Thank you so much, Mr Israr, your organization is doing a lot of work on different initiatives. As you said, I believe as well that digitalization in technology, AI, etc., is the second part. Although we need cybersecurity, first, we need food security and climate security, like the condition of Lahore these days due to smog. Nobody is talking about AI, etc., since they cannot breathe properly. Moving on to our next panellist, Ms Rida, please brief us about the role of tech-driven social entrepreneurship in achieving the SDGs in Pakistan’s 2030 mission.
Ms Rida:
Thank you so much to the SDGs academy and all the organizing partners for allowing me to share my thoughts. It’s lovely to have such a bright and upcoming concept being talked about, it’s very important to talk about emerging technologies in this day and age to stay relevant. Before I continue to answer the question, I am going to break down a few concepts. A lot of us don’t know what SDGs are. I first wanted to brief you about the SDGs to make the discussion relevant. Sustainable Development Goals came after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are to be achieved by 2030. The first sustainable development goal talks about poverty, food security, education, etc. All these 17 goals are to be achieved in our social security matters.
Secondly, I would like to talk about social entrepreneurship before going to Tech Driven Social Entrepreneurship. Everyone knows about entrepreneurship, which is bringing up innovative ideas based on the market need. Social entrepreneurship is focused on innovating something that is based on a social need, and social is a conceptually different term. The first thing that comes to mind after hearing the word social is how we can make money out of it since it’s charity work, etc., for sustainability. For people who came early, there was a screen showing videos of Davos of the Pathfinder Group, where they talked about different social development aspects. It’s the statement of Davos in 2022 that “There are over a trillion dollars in health tech alone,” and as we are growing every year, that figure is also increasing exponentially. Unfortunately, we are not able to tap into these trillion dollars, and the neighbouring countries are tapping into these technologies. It means that there is an opportunity in Pakistan as well, and we can avail of it. We can innovate the technologies in health tech, FemTech, so if we can tap into all these tech-driven innovations, then we can innovate any technology.
For example, a person who gathered the pulse rate monitor and basic health monitoring, which Apple has placed in a watch, made a lot of money from it. If someone makes innovations like this, big companies can pick them, and you can also create them for your country’s rural areas. I know someone in Pakistan who is making the same product in the form of a wristband. For now, its price is Rs.10,000, but people who are from economic and business backgrounds know the moment demand increases, the price will also increase. Our rural areas have a lot of demand, and we can produce it at as low as possible prices and at such a lower cost they will have maximum utilization.
In Rah-e-Nau Constellation, we guide youth in social entrepreneurship and link them with industry experts to not just ideate the idea but to develop the product, develop the prototype and then launch it, and then scale it in the global market. Social entrepreneurship is not only a need of Pakistan because the agenda of the environment is everywhere in the world, so developing the innovations that make Pakistan the innovation hub is my responsibility as well. I am going to take as much as I can of the same opportunity in health, education, and environment. The second largest out-of-school population is in Pakistan. We have left the whole of Africa behind and are coming up in the top countries with out-of-school children, and my question is, why is that so? And it’s very painful to see it.
I graduated from Africa, studied at the United States International University in Kenya, and, after all the possible opportunities, came back to Pakistan. I believe that we have a lot of talent, potential, and opportunities in this country globally. So learn emerging technologies and use them as a tool for social development. This is my last message to all of the youth.
Shah Rukh Khan:
Thank you so much, Miss Rida. You have rightly pointed out that the best way to describe social entrepreneurship is by identifying the social issue, developing a product or service, and then innovating it. Moving on, as we talked about the health sector and the tech-driven health sector, we have with us, Dr Sara Shafqat from the health sector. I request you to shed some light on how we can develop a digital health ecosystem specifically and how we can link it with SDGs, which are good health and well-being.
Dr Sara Shafqat:
Thank you, Shah Rukh, for this opportunity to speak about digital health from the SDGs academy platform. Dr Asma has already talked about digital health, and we are also talking about cybersecurity. Whatever we see, we see it on the internet. If we talk about sustainable development goals, it is about society solving societal challenges, and one of the goals is, of course, health care. We are integrating it with the cyber world, where everything comes into the digital scenario, and we look forward to it. We need a cyber secure world because of these systems that in the future, all of our societal sectors, i.e. health care, agriculture, education, etc. will be integrated and enabled with IOT devices, medical devices, even if it’s your pulse rate, cardio, insulin gadget attached with the body it will not be so unbearable the way it sounds.
Still, it would be there for the societal health. If we talk about digital healthcare, it feels like it is everywhere, just like the internet signals reaching everywhere, and we are acknowledging it in the global world through which our peripherals and people from suburban areas will be facilitated. It will also contract the distance of the locations like the people from suburban areas who face difficulty and transportation issues in reaching the hospital, it will take us to economical and cost-effective healthcare as well.
For digital health, we have to integrate the patients’ data, keeping in view confidentiality. Still, I am very grateful to Shifa International Hospital when I was doing my PhD in computer sciences, I had to work on health care. They enabled MIS and provided me with the big data I used for diagnostics. All our hospitals should have MIS enabled while keeping the integrity and confidentiality of the data. It should be available for societal benefits. Why do we only talk about private hospitals? Even government hospitals should be using this system since it’s the need of time.
These things should be there for our researchers and educationists and the overall societal benefits, we must tap into this huge benefit. We have also launched Sehat Plus to develop the digital healthcare ecosystem in Pakistan, in which we are bringing different health solutions through which you can start digital health clinics in your local areas, cities, and localities through collaborative partnerships with us, which is all for the well-being of Pakistan.
Shah Rukh Khan:
Thank you so much, Dr. Sara Shafqat. As you rightly mentioned, everything is going digital, including health care. We need to catch up since the world will have robotic surgeries. However, we cannot even enable telemedicine and still rush to the doctor for injections, ultimately satisfying them. Hence, a mindset needs to be changed before going digital.
We have Shahzad with us from the Youth Council Pakistan, and we mostly have youth sitting here. Why is everyone talking about the youth everywhere, that youth should do this, etc. because we are the majority of the population? Now, they cannot manage it, and they want us to step up, which is good, but first, we have to educate ourselves. They are not letting us into the policy-making. They are just telling us that the youth should do this, etc. They should talk to us about the policy because, as a youth, climate change is our responsibility, so why not ask me what kind of policy you want regarding climate change? Because you are the future. Shehzad, the question to you would be how we can align and put the youth of our country on track to contribute to the sustainable development goals.
Muhammad Shehzad Khan President, Youth Council
Thank you so much, Shah Rukh. First of all, I am very much honoured to share the stage with worthy panellists. I am Shehzad, a graduate of International Relations from the National Defense University, Islamabad, and I am pursuing my Masters from the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) QAU, Islamabad. I am working on sustainable development goals and would like to talk directly to the youth because I have been involved with the youth for the last 8 years. I am responsible for making you understand SDGs in simple words because most of you need to learn what SDGs are.
Let’s talk in simple words. In 2008, the government came in and started a project called the Benazir Income Support Program. The development began because it was under their Act, so it continued along with the other projects. In 2013, the government came in and started a project of a laptop scheme for students. Everyone says the development has begun, and it is contributing, but the moment they complete their tenure, and in 2018 when another political party came into power, they closed the previous project so the development which was started stopped right there. The development was there, but it was not sustainable. The new government introduced the Kamyab Jawan program, Ehsaas Scholarship, etc. similarly to others, when the new government came in, they stopped those projects even though the development was ongoing, but it was not sustainable.
United Nations, where representatives of all the countries sit, thought resources like mind, time, energy, money, and state machinery would be utilized for the development. After all this, it will be discontinued after 5 years, which is a waste of all the resources used, and still, that development is not sustainable with no outcome. Because of this, human beings are affected in terms of health, poverty, climate, etc. According to the recent Global Climate Risk Index by German Watch, which the United Nations cited, Pakistan ranks among the countries most affected by climate change.
United Nations has thought of making a policy that will be sustainable, so SDGs are those goals that we have to decrease poverty, lift the health system by establishing more hospitals with qualified doctors, and eliminate gender discrimination. We have to lift the justice system, we have to increase the collaborations and work on climate actions, but we have to do it with sustainability, that’s why they have given these sustainability goals for 2030 and every year every country gets ranking on this basis which shows after one year which country has achieved all these goals to what extent. Two years before, Pakistan’s ranking was after 120th, meaning 120 countries have achieved those goals better, but we are still working on it.
Secondly, youth don’t know about their power. Some days back, people were talking about the 26th Constitutional Amendment, where the 2/3rd majority wasn’t being fulfilled in Parliament. They were having backto-back meetings and negotiations, and the 2/3rd figure was significant. That power is in youth since you are the 2/3rd majority of Pakistan – 64 per cent of the population.
You people can do anything. You can change the dynamics of Pakistan, and there are the roles of the state and non-state actors. I would appreciate the current chairman of CDA, Mr Muhammad Ali Randhawa, who allocated academic marks for the students participating in the plantation drive. I recommend to the state and non-state actors from this platform to please engage this 2/3rd majority of Pakistan, or else you will be left behind because there are millions of soldiers and the army that are defending your borders. Still, the cyber war is now ongoing, and if you educate, train, and engage them with AI, these are the cyber soldiers.
They can defend your cyber borders and can compete in the world market to make Pakistan technologically great. You can use AI in the health sector. Irfan Malik is an example who has generated 2.4 million using the health sector. I suggest the government should work on the Seven Generations Principle Thought, which will help make the policy that will impact the coming seven generations. After that, you can achieve sustainable development goals and contribute to the national cause.
Shah Rukh Khan:
Thank you so much, Shehzad. You have rightly pointed out that you have the power as a youth. You very humbly said that political parties complete their tenure but we have yet to determine which party has completed the tenure so far. We must separate politics from the administration side. Whatever projects he mentioned were good government projects, they must be sustainable. They should not be politically influenced but should be administratively influenced.
Thank you so much to all the panellists. We can now take one brief question from the sitting youth, if any.
Question:
Assalam-o-Alaikum, my question is for Dr Sara Shafqat. You mentioned AI and the power of technology in health care, as we saw previously on 12th September when the first robotic heart transplant surgery took place in Saudi Arabia. When we see globally and worldwide that technology and AI are growing exponentially, what is the problem with Pakistan? What factors limit us to grow like that, and what are the problems we face on a very minute level? I believe that whenever you look after a problem, you should first look at its root cause where the problem was initiated, which is the step where you start fixing that problem and coming towards a solution. What do you think about a student like us or a country like Pakistan? What are the problems that we face? Why can’t we inherit and put AI in our health care?
Dr Sara Shafqat:
That is a very right and valid question. I just wanted to say since you are the student and we all sitting here are the researchers, the first thing we learn is in our lives, we are the students for a lifetime, and to be a student, one must have an optimistic mindset, this is the only thing in which we are lacking, we become so pessimistic that we are afraid to take the initiative, of course, there are challenges and risk factors as well we need to counter and mitigate them.
Whenever we come up with a new thing, we bring it on monitory aspects, and in parallel, we keep doing the research and development and implement it side by side as well. This is the thing which we need to improve on and we should consider this.
Question:
My question is for Madam Rida, you have been to Kenya and got your education there. I have also visited some parts of the world, as you talked about social entrepreneurship and told us the difference between normal and social entrepreneurship. Whenever a person wants to be an entrepreneur, he first looks at the profits he wants for himself, without caring about the people, country, or community as a part of the society. Still, when it comes to social entrepreneurship, those who want to start a venture or a business want to give it back to the community or the country. The problem with our country is that when it comes to the youth or the people sitting over here, we don’t have the mindset and the thinking that we want to work for someone else, we look for ourselves.
I have been to Germany and Portugal I’ve seen the young people and even the students of 1st semester, start their startups. Their government gives them the services and the facilities, but we don’t have that, so how do we shift that mindset that we want to work for the social society and the community?
Ms Rida:
You are talking about the mindset shift, we don’t realize that we are the ones who give the highest charity in the world, which is embedded in our culture. We silently give money to someone at our convenience. If we have that concept of giving back, why don’t we embed it into our business? So it’s a mindset shift, and we only have to give direction to the youth. I am a member of the Youth Policy Forum and I can see that we people can do innovations.
Dr Muhammad Israr:
This student has raised a very valid point. I wanted to share an incident. Once we were on a visit to South Korea and since in NCRD, we sent people on exposure visits, and they share their whole development journey with us. One of the Korean professors told us that he was from that generation where they used to have 5 to 6 siblings living with their grandparents, we used to decide daily who would be eating today. It shows that many countries have gone through a great extent of poverty, food insecurity, and hunger and how they have developed.
We have witnessed this also in the US and other countries. It is the responsibility of the older generation to inculcate this in the younger generation, and every person must have a purpose and meaning in life. This is not a problem. We already have a lot of education in AI, climate change, food security, etc., and we need to know the purpose and meaning of life. We need informed policy-making that can incorporate the youth, we need more planning, but we talk about public policy-making, etc. I will say in the end that just find the purpose of life. We also have extremism in our country.
Whenever someone talks about the youth and empowers them, they start thinking all old people are irrelevant, but this is not the thing, “Centuries hold wisdom.” We, the old people, can still help you do many things, but you will go beyond the stars in the skies.
Dr Rida:
We have talked about information. There are incubation centres and different institutions like Rah-e-Nau, training which NCRD gives, and a Youth Policy Forum as well, which provides opportunities. There are existing structures. Figure out what they are, start reaching out and start working on your startups in your first semester of university.
Raheela Baqai:
In the third and last session, I would like to invite the moderator, Mr Jaffari, Chairman of Security Expert and Founder of Digital Pakistan.
Dr Ammar Jaffari, Moderator:
In today’s topic, we are talking about a system in AI that should be robust, proactive, and dynamic and it should also absorb the upcoming new developments in the world. Currently, many institutions in Pakistan are becoming stakeholders in cyber security. The institution that I have headed for a long time was the National Response Center for Cyber Crime. It’s very important to tell its history.
I named it NR3C and went to the office the next day, and people asked me what this 3C is. I explained to them that C is being repeated thrice in the full form, so I changed it into 3C, but before that, many people helped me check whether it’s a good standard. It took me around one month to tell people that this NR3C was established in 2002. There was a seminar in Karachi recently where I said I had caught 14 people one night in Karachi when the Western Union server got hacked. There were kids of very important people involved, but no one stopped us. We work as a single window. We used to do prosecution and go to the courts ourselves.
Today, that work is being done by six departments. Bhutta Sahib, you witnessed many of my crime stories in the past. I started a process in 2002, and then we took a law that you know very well, and Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed helped us with that. It is very important to tell people why we failed in it.
T.A Bhutta Member, Cybersecurity Task Force
First of all, I am very thankful to the organizers of this event, especially regarding the very important topics: cyber security, cybercrime, AI, SDGs, and emerging technologies. Regarding the topic that you have questioned, we should keep three things in mind whenever we talk about cybersecurity: number one, the Multi-Stakeholder Approach or Cybersecurity Multi-Stakeholder, which may include the government organization, the private sector, individual researchers, scholars, etc.
Then the Interdisciplinary Approach which tells that cybersecurity is not the work of computer science, there are two domains in cyber security: one is from the computer science which include the software, hardware, etc. and the second comes in the social science which covers so many domains, i.e., legislations, roles, policies, behaviours that (why someone wants to go for a crime), or why they are hiding something or trying to do such kind of activities.
These are the two major adoptions of cyber security. The third and most important aspect of cyber security after the multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary approach is Shared Responsibility. Cyber security is the shared responsibility that may be someone in the government organization or someone in an individual capacity.
The question is why Pakistan failed to overcome these challenges and problems and why we must catch up in cybersecurity. So after 2004- 2005, the Prevention of Electronic Crime Ordinance was proposed, and we didn’t work as required on it. It was introduced four times as an Ordinance and in 2016 the Parliament passed the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act. So we wasted those ten years. Then, in 2013, when the Edwards Snowden Leaks came in, we started knowing that the American Security Agency was storing all the servers, social media platforms, and internet communication.
Pakistan is the second country with information in the hands of America, the first was Iran, with 15 billion leaks, including voice messages, information, communication, etc., and Pakistan has 13 billion leaks. At that time, we tried our best to take the initiative on this with the help of Mushahid Hussain Syed. He was the Head of the Senate Standing Defense Committee, and many participants from different organizations tried their best.
Mushahid Hussain Syed presented that bill in the Senate. At that time, the government was of PML (N), and the opposition was PML (Q League) and normally, the government doesn’t support the normal opposition and private bills. They didn’t support it and said the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act could fulfill their need; it shows negligence from the government’s end. India implemented its cyber security policy in 2013, which we implemented in July 2021. We are ten years behind India and twenty years behind the other countries worldwide.
Ammar Jaffari:
The last thing that Bhutta Sahib has mentioned is very right. Just like NDU, there is an institution in Delhi. I got a chance to visit there and told them this. We are very far from India, and the youth should also understand this when it comes to cyber security, cybercrimes, etc. It’s very painful to talk about this, but the positive thing is that we made our laws and systems before India.
Ms Nargis, I would like to ask you that cybercrime and cyber security are two different things. We have made the rules of cybercrimes, formulated FIA as well, and started arresting people too, but still, a lot has to be done in terms of cyber security. I am very much concerned about it because it’s been 2.5 years, but we are still not able to make an Authority. Do you foresee where the security is lacking? All other institutions, like PTA, Ministry of IT, SERT, etc., are working how all of them work collectively.
Nargis Raza Deputy Director (Investigation) Cybercrime Wing-FIA
Thank you so much. I am Nargis Raza, serving FIA as a Deputy Director (Investigation) Cybercrime WingFIA. The question you asked is very interesting because most of the time, people are confused about cybercrime and cyber security when I go to conferences. Today, I will give very few compact words to make everyone understand the word cybercrime. It always reflects the word offensive, and when the word offensive is there, it means to be dealt with laws and legal procedures.
Cyber security refers to safeguarding or defence, which should be done proactively before anything happens. Still, when it happens, the role of the cybercrime investigation wing FIA comes in, where we have to identify these culprits, and then according to the law we prosecute them. Now, another question is, why is there a delay? The delay is because either it’s a cybercriminal or a hacker online, the time between their thinking and implementation of crime is zero seconds, or the moment they find a new way of the crime, they execute it the very next moment. Unfortunately, government bodies always have very long procedures which are always due to bureaucratic delays. However, right now, the main thing is how we can foster a very resilient and secure cyber ecosystem which can be done through strategic collaboration between government bodies, academia, and industries. I want to explain it further since the complexities of cyber threats are demanding, and it means a multiplexed approach.
Government entities play a crucial role in sustaining a cyber-secure digital system in today’s interconnected world, and these entities are responsible for establishing comprehensive cybersecurity policies and regulations that will set a framework for protecting critical infrastructure and sensitive information. By collaborating with private sector organizations, agencies can share vital intelligence threats and vulnerabilities, thus fostering a culture of reactive defence rather than reactive measures.
Additionally, government bodies should invest in public awareness campaigns to educate citizens about the best online safety and collective responsibility toward cybercrime. In every seminar, we mention that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, it’s not an individual responsibility of, let’s say, an institution like FIA or a cybersecurity wing, etc. Research and development initiatives should also take place to advance technologies and methodologies.
Furthermore, through international corporations, government bodies can work together to combat cybercrime and establish non-responsible behaviour in cyberspace. Overall, the active engagement of government bodies is essential for establishing a resilient security ecosystem that can safeguard national security.
Meanwhile, industry players can bring practical insights and innovative technologies essential for combating cyber threats while ensuring that solutions are aligned with regulatory requirements. Academia can contribute by advancing research and education in cybersecurity by cultivating a skilled workforce to tackle these challenges, and we are well aware of the fact that cyber threats continue to evolve complexities. They not only produce cutting-edge research that helps to identify vulnerabilities, but they can also cultivate the next generation of cyber security professionals through specialized degree and training initiatives.
Finally, I want to conclude today’s session by saying that if we embrace technological advancement as a nation, it is also very important to privatize cybersecurity to protect the integrity of digital infrastructure and other information systems. This commitment to digital assertions can be achieved by levering and strengthening each sector and aligning growth and sustainability with other factors. This will shape Pakistan’s overall resilience and cyber security.
Ammar Jaffari:
Thank you so much. So far, you people must be afraid of the name of FIA. Today, you have seen a soft image of this institution. Before joining FIA, I was appointed to work in airports. General Moeen was the Interior Minister at that time; I went to him and said, “please remove this staff having a big moustache and hire females”. Believe me, the whole department was against me, but when I go the airport today, a female staff said, “We are here because of you.” I had got 130 posts for sub-inspector and inspectors and I said that we would recruit 80% females on them. Because of this, all of FIA has a soft image on airports now. When I was in the NR3C department.
I tried a lot to find female staff but didn’t get any. 8 very qualified persons got hired there, and they were PhD doctors, researchers, etc, but now they are serving in high-end posts. I went to Gen Moeen and said I wanted to give them 2 lakh, he asked me about my salary and it was Rs.40000. I told him I was getting a government salary and they are on private payroll. I think if females are given equal opportunities, they can perform much better. Well, they are their daughters and sisters, so why are we biased? Now, I would like to ask Dr Hafeez who is a friend of mine. Doctor Sahib, the cyber security framework works under a single flag worldwide. The best example is WHF China. I’ve been into their high-rise buildings as well, but they follow a single command. Why, in our country, is one department not ready to talk to the other?
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman:
It’s the same question as who pulled the hand break since Pakistan is always going through a difficult situation. I will divide cyber security into three parts, and then I’ll come back to the point of institutions. First of all, there is an offensive security that students should know about the hacks and how a person can get hacked. The hacking of applications and the web, etc., then how this attack occurred, who had done it, the forensic investigation against him, and the soft analysts to defend it.
Then, there is an audit team for each institution, and that security audit should be mandatory. The most vulnerable thing to be hacked is a human being rather than a system, which can be done easily. If you are putting in a secured infrastructure but the person sitting on a reception gets hacked, your data will automatically be in someone else’s hands but there are many things that we can implement to avoid this.
Now, coming to why institutions are not connected, it’s because I feel we are having this problem from the grassroots. Even in schools, colleges, and universities, we work for ourselves, which will be my benefit. If we keep talking about our benefits, like in universities, every student studies for their grades.
As a nation, we are not focused, and I think being a Muslim, we should be working collaboratively with other Muslims, just like a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) for cybersecurity specifically in Muslim countries. So, I believe Muslim countries should make a joint cybersecurity policy. We always keep on talking about the West, but they are thinking of eliminating us. We have to work collectively and have to start from scratch. My suggestion to the youth and the university students is to go for the free courses available on the internet, and even the MTI courses are free of cost, so it’s a step-wise process so start doing certifications since the International market is more focused on it.
Ammar Jaffari:
I will ask you another question since you have talked about certifications. There is a website called ISC2 that provides the best certification in the world called CISSP. If you do that, you will get a job in any of the Western countries.
It’s very difficult to do and if you go to the website isc2. org, there are ISCA awards mentioned there. The first award was given by them in 2007 in Bangkok, and I was the one who got that award from Pakistan. They tried to put me in for some time, but then they wanted me to sign an NDA and asked me not to teach ever, but I refused because I wanted to be a teacher. The fee for that certification is 1300 dollars, and 700 dollars is charged for the boot camp. We lobbied in ISC2 and fought with them to make sure that it was free for the students. You people must be happy to hear that CC is free now for students. A student named Humna from Sindh is sitting here and working with me. Her uncle was the Attorney General there, and he told me about her talent. When she came to me, I told her to pass CC in 1 month, and she did it in two weeks. I’ve only guided her and she passed it. CC has four domains and if you are going to do that certification, it is free of cost for 2 lakh students across the world.
Let me share a story with you, when I was serving in FIA, back then, there was a website, zomg.org, where hackers worldwide used to claim what they had done. I subscribed to it with a cover story. Once I stayed in Karachi, I got a notification at 1 pm that one of the websites of a bank chain got hacked, and the hacker claimed it. I got cautious and thought that if this came in a notice in the morning, we would get embarrassed. I got the number of the president of the bank, introduced myself to him and told him that his website had been hacked. You know what he said: “Did you hack it?” He got scared after hearing about FIA. I told him to ask his CTO to call me, and I would guide him. Later he thanked me for saving his bank that night. Dr. Hafeez, I will ask you a question about IOT since you have done your PhD in it. IOT plays a very important role, and mark my words, within two years, one can tell the other person what he is thinking. Just imagine how dangerous it is. We are already in a world where we have IOT in our homes like AC, LEDs etc.
Our discomfort will be removed. There was a book as well on this topic, “Big Brother is Watching You” which was made as a film afterwards and in that, they told these things 30 years ago that you will be on watch. Dr Sahib, if you can quickly answer this question, how we can remove this discomfort that whenever we think about something it starts giving notifications on our mobile?
Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman: It’s all about mindset. We talked about cyber security and emerging technologies very casually. When the global world implements something, we start working on it. At this moment, the world is using AI to an extent that we can’t even imagine. We are still educating people on Python, even in 2024. We are a national work reactive, we need to be proactive and should know what will happen in the next 10 years. We just need to connect the research with development. The majority of Chinese professors have their own companies. Still, here in Pakistan, we are only publishing research papers and getting promotions. So, I think this is the fault line, and we need to be socially and digitally independent.
Ammar Jaffari:
Now, I would like to ask Ms Aiman a question. I get a lot of calls, which I route to my FIA fellows. If I get ten calls in a day, seven are from females on very painful matters like video leaking, pictures leaking, etc., which hit their personal lives. Females are getting afraid of it. What strategies can you propose that can be practised to use the internet safely?
Ms Aiman: Assalam-o-Alaikum, first of all, I’m very honoured and grateful to you. Sir, you have given me a chance to talk to the upcoming generation and our youth sitting here. The thing you have mentioned is that females are scared of using the internet freely and safely.
First of all, start privatizing the thing that you don’t want to get out and save it to yourself first. When you are saving yourself and taking care of your security, nobody from the worldwide will be able to access you.
Secondly, we are using social media platforms a lot, and we are under their influence, so I must say surf on social media according to your level. Thirdly, we are fascinated by this all so much and don’t even think that this could happen in real life or not. The majority of the content over there is just fascinating to you, and since AI is emerging a lot as well, most of the content is AI-based.
Don’t take that content seriously, just think about your circumstances. Indeed, we cannot restrict social media. Still, the only thing I can say to my students and the upcoming youth is to start thinking about the developments we can make in this domain to filter out the content with the help of the algorithms and present that thing that is socially, morally, and ethically beneficial for everyone. They can learn something from it, and I think we are not able to cope with the industry when it comes to schools, colleges, and universities. We have the content which has been rolled out many years ago, and we don’t know what we have to present. I just wanted to request that industrialists must align industries with academia because this alignment will enable us to think about what skills we need to learn and what developments need to be done.
When the AI got boosted recently during my interview with the students coming for admissions, I asked them why AI. Why do you want to opt for this program? What are your goals and objectives, and where do you see yourself in the coming four years in the field of AI? How will you be serving Pakistan, and what will you deliver? But unfortunately, they only knew ChatGPT.
Raheela Baqai:
Thank you so much, everyone. I would like to request General Shakeel to come to the stage and give his concluding remarks.
Gen (R) Shakeel Hussain Deputy Chairman, Pathfinder Group
Thank you very much. I had always known that AI and other technologies exist, but today, I’ve been shaken that this is real and that it is around the corner. To the kids, I want to say start your startups, whatever you want to do, take knowledge from the internet, and don’t be afraid of failure. Those failures will lead you to success, so you can start it straight away, but what do we have to defend? As Israr Sahib said, you are making money, but there is something that we need to defend, too, so I will not say anything based on any ideology. I will just say that please intellectually apply yourself to what you want to be and what you will finally defend also. Start applying it intellectually. I have learned it after 60 years of age, but this all is available to you at the click of a button, so you people have the advantage, please avail it. In the end, I would say:
محسن ہمارے ساتھ بڑا حادثہ ہوا
ہم رہ گئے ہمارا زمانہ چلا گیا
“Mohsin hamaray sath bada hadsa hua,
Hum reh gaye, hamara zamana chala gaya.”
