That's a wrap on this year's PDA Summer Internship Programme. Our interns spent the summer on live projects across AI, data, operations and delivery, working alongside our teams on the systems behind Pakistan's digital transformation. We are grateful to the colleagues who mentored them. The programme returns next summer.

Digital transformation is a long build, and it needs partnerships built for that distance, along with technical depth and institutions that keep showing up. The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) hosted a delegation from the @WorldBankGroup at its headquarters in Islamabad for a strategic engagement on Pakistan’s digital transformation agenda and opportunities for continued collaboration under the Digital Economy Enhancement Project (DEEP). The meeting was chaired by @sohailmunir, Chairperson, PDA, and attended by senior officials from both institutions, including Michel Rogy, Regional Practice Director, World Bank, and Sylvia Solf, Practice Manager, World Bank. Discussions covered: • Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and citizen-centric digital services • ⁠WASL, Pakistan's National Data Exchange Layer, for secure and interoperable data exchange • ⁠The National Digital Master Plan (NDMP) and its priority sectoral use cases • ⁠Data governance, covering classification, residency and sharing • ⁠Artificial Intelligence, including responsible AI safeguards and AI-ready datasets • ⁠Federal and provincial interoperability, and shared digital infrastructure • ⁠AI and GPU compute capacity, under public, private and hybrid models • ⁠Machine-readable legislation, primary data registries and open data The World Bank also offered support through its Design Lab, and both sides discussed joint work on selected priority use cases to simplify citizen-facing digital services. The engagement reaffirmed a shared focus on secure, interoperable and citizen-centric digital transformation, and set out practical avenues for collaboration. National digital capability is assembled in rooms like this one, by institutions that keep returning to the table.

Investors put capital where they can trust the system: verified data, connected institutions and rules that are applied the same way every time. For Pakistan, building that trust is closely tied to how effectively the country’s digital infrastructure connects institutions, data and services. To discuss how Pakistan's digital transformation can support its emerging investment ecosystem, the Pakistan Digital Authority hosted Mr. Khalil Usmani, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Usman Saeed, Senior Vice President, Investment Banking, of @JSGlobalOnline at PDA Headquarters. @sohailmunir, Chairperson, PDA, briefed the delegation on PDA's vision and priorities, with a focus on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and WASL, Pakistan's National Data Exchange Layer, and their role in strengthening interoperability and data-driven public services. The meeting turned to capital markets enablement, REITs and investment opportunities in Pakistan. It also covered how digital infrastructure can improve efficiency across large-scale infrastructure projects, housing and commercial real estate. Digital public infrastructure makes due diligence faster and risk easier to assess. It lowers the cost of trust in an economy, and engagements such as this help shape it around the needs of those who invest in Pakistan's growth.

Every citizen has the right to ask: who looked at my data, and why? Writing in The News, Dr. Sahibzada Ali Mahmud, Chief Digital Public Infrastructure Officer at the Pakistan Digital Authority, sets out how WASL, Pakistan's National Data Exchange Layer, builds trust into its architecture, drawing on lessons from Estonia's X-Road and from the UK, Australia and Uganda. Together with the enforcement powers proposed in the draft National Data Governance Policy, this makes the answer to "who looked at my data?" something citizens can check, and so can a court. Trust does not come from simply building new systems. It must be visible and felt: people need to see how their data is used and know the rules will be enforced. This is the second article in his series on Pakistan's Digital Public Infrastructure. Read the article here: thenews.pk/print/1438098-who…

30 minutes to go. X Space: Internet Computer for Nations Dr. Sohail Munir (@sohailmunir), Ali Theyab Al-Zuhairi (@AliATheyab), Pierre Samaties (@PierreSamaties) and Matt Grogan (@Grogan73) on Pakistan's Sovereign Cloud Engine, its sovereign messaging app, and the @UNDP collaboration taking it to other nations.

X Space: Internet Computer for Nations Sunday 20 September 1:00 PM CEST · 3:00 PM GST · 4:00 PM PKT · 7:00 AM EDT nitter.net/i/spaces/1aKbdEqdAvqJX… Hear the latest on: • Pakistan, the first country operating a Sovereign Cloud Engine, using Caffeine.ai to build and deploy government apps directly onto its own infrastructure • The pilot of a sovereign messaging app for Pakistan • The @UNDP and DFINITY collaboration to bring sovereign digital technology to other nations and institutions, capitalizing on the progress driven by the Pakistan Digital Authority (@digitalauthpk) • The Internet Computer as a new tech stack for AIware that empowers agentic nations With: Dr. Sohail Munir, Chairperson, Pakistan Digital Authority (@sohailmunir) Ali Theyab Al-Zuhairi, Digital Economies Lead, UNDP (@AliATheyab) Pierre Samaties, Chief Business Officer, DFINITY Foundation (@PierreSamaties) Matt Grogan, Co-founder, OpenChat (@Grogan73)

Moving from fragmented systems to connected ones changes what the health ecosystem can do on its worst days, when an outbreak is moving faster than the information about it. The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) took part in the Consultative Meeting on the Finalization of the One Health Joint Action Plan for the ICT Model District, held at the @OIC_COMSTECH Secretariat, Islamabad. Representing PDA, Dr. Reham Baig, shared PDA’s vision and options for an integrated health system, highlighting the importance of interoperability, secure data exchange, digital identity, common standards, and coordinated digital health systems. The discussion underscored the need to move beyond fragmented and standalone digital solutions towards a more connected, interoperable and citizen-centred digital health ecosystem that can support coordinated action across human health, animal health, environmental health, laboratories, surveillance systems and other relevant sectors. The session also highlighted how strong digital foundations can support the One Health approach, strengthen pandemic preparedness, and enable more timely and informed decision making across institutions. A plan for coordinated health action is only as connected as the systems beneath it. Building that layer is the work ahead.

X space with @digitalauthpk planned for Sunday, 20th of September. 1:00 PM Central European Summer Time (CEST) 3:00 PM Gulf Standard Time (GST) 4:00 PM Pakistan Standard Time (PKT) More details will come from @dfinity tomorrow.

Engagement with the banking sector is essential to building a digital financial ecosystem that runs on shared national rails and puts citizens first. The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) hosted Umair Aijaz, FCCA, ACA, Chief Executive Officer, @RaqamiBank, at PDA Headquarters for a strategic engagement on Pakistan’s evolving Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the wider digital transformation agenda. The Raqami delegation also comprised of Syed Abid Raza Rizvi, Chief Business Officer; Rukhsana Narejo, CFA, Chief Treasury Officer; and Shahid Yasin, Head of Liabilities. The meeting was chaired by @sohailmunir, Chairperson, PDA, and centred on PDA’s mandate, strategic priorities and current initiatives. Discussions covered strengthening national digital infrastructure, promoting interoperability, enabling secure and inclusive digital services, and building collaboration between the public and private sectors. The delegation and PDA also explored areas of mutual interest in digital financial services, innovation and technology-enabled solutions, in the context of an integrated and citizen-centric digital ecosystem. Financial services are where digital public infrastructure stops being an architecture diagram and starts being something a citizen uses. PDA remains committed to engaging with industry to support a secure, interoperable and inclusive digital ecosystem for Pakistan.

Machine-readable law has the potential to change how regulation reaches the people it governs. A rule can be found, applied and cited without manual re-interpretation each time. The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA), in collaboration with the @ministry_law, convened the first Regulators Consultative Session on Machine-Readable Legislation (MRL), Akoma Ntoso and Policy-as-Code at PDA Headquarters in Islamabad. The session brought together technical experts from @FBRSpokesperson, @StateBank_Pak, @SECPakistan, @CCP_Pakistan, @NEPRA5 and @OGRAEnforcement. They considered how structured, machine-readable law can strengthen the way regulation is developed, maintained and applied across government. Through an interactive demonstration of the MRL application, participants explored practical use cases across regulatory institutions and examined legal, technical and AI considerations. The discussion also focused on the wider potential of MRL to improve regulatory clarity, institutional efficiency, business compliance and the accessibility of law. The consultation forms part of PDA’s engagement under the National Digital Master Plan and contributes to the sectoral plans for Pakistan’s digital transformation. It also lays the groundwork for LegalTech and RegTech in Pakistan, where law and regulation can function as structured digital infrastructure rather than static documents. The session concluded with a shared resolve among participating institutions to continue this work collaboratively and to translate the concept into practical reform across Pakistan’s regulatory ecosystem. Machine-readable law has already changed how several countries publish and maintain legislation. Pakistan has now taken its first step on the same path, towards a state that is more connected, transparent and digitally enabled.

The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) engaged with more than 100 banking-sector CXOs in a session organized by the @PakBanksAssoc on Pakistan’s Digital Public Infrastructure, with a focus on WASL — Pakistan’s National Data Exchange Layer. The session was led by Dr. Sahibzada Ali Mahmud, Chief Digital Public Infrastructure Officer, PDA, who presented the vision, architecture and potential of WASL and discussed how secure, trusted and consent-based data exchange can enable banking use cases and support greater access to finance. He was accompanied by Aalishan Akhtar, Executive Director DPI, PDA. The discussion also explored international experience, including Brazil’s Open Finance ecosystem and Pix instant payment system, and the lessons these models offer for Pakistan as it develops its own digital public infrastructure. The active participation of banking-sector leaders, including their insights, questions and proposed use cases, provided valuable input for aligning the evolution of WASL with the needs of Pakistan’s financial sector. PDA thanks the Pakistan Banks Association and all participating institutions and industry leaders for their engagement and looks forward to continued collaboration as Pakistan builds an interoperable, trusted and inclusive digital ecosystem. WASL’s Reference Architecture and accompanying instruments are available at standards.dnp.gov.pk.

Ask citizens what they want from the state and the answer is rarely a new service. It is the assurance that the record already held about them can be relied on, that services are anticipatory, that information is asked for once and remembered, and that when something does go wrong there is a way to be heard. @sohailmunir, Chairperson, Pakistan Digital Authority, discussed citizen experience with public sector services on Conversations at Foothills by @ISSRA_Official, hosted by @KashoonLeeza. The Digital Nation Pakistan Act 2025 obliges PDA to develop and promote a national citizen experience strategy, and to set the design standards, guidelines and frameworks for all public sector digital services, covering accessibility, security and the quality of the experience itself. The Act does not treat citizen experience as a courtesy. It puts the quality of digital service delivery on a statutory footing, and it points towards services that anticipate what a citizen needs rather than waiting to be asked. A digital economy rests on the same foundation. Businesses transact where contracts hold and title is certain. Trust is not something a government asks for. It arrives when a citizen stops having to prove what the state already knows, and when what they need at each turn of a life is ready before they think to ask.

Three pillars, set out in the Digital Nation Pakistan Act, 2025 and the National Digital Masterplan is how they get built. Pakistan has made progress in digitisation over the past two decades. From digital identity and digital payments to online public services, important foundations are already in place. The National Digital Masterplan connects these foundations and builds on them, adding the digital public infrastructure, governance frameworks, and interoperability standards that enable all tiers of government to deliver digital services to Pakistan's citizens. It is Pakistan's framework for digital transformation across government, economy and society. Being developed by the Pakistan Digital Authority, the National Digital Masterplan will align institutions, priorities, and investment for a Digital Pakistan where the economy can compete, the state can deliver, and no citizen is left outside the system.

The value of data is well established. What decides whether a country captures it is how well it governs it. The Draft Data Governance Policy 2026 is where that work is set down: how government data is classified, who holds it, on what terms it may be shared, and what a citizen consents to. It establishes data as a national asset held in trust, not the property of the organisation that happens to hold it. Alongside it sits WASL, the National Data Exchange Layer, through which inter-agency exchange is conducted rather than through ad hoc arrangements between departments. Together with the once-only principle, that is what stops a citizen being asked for the same information twice. Pakistan has seen what data does for economies that govern it well. The infrastructure to do the same is being built now. Watch @sohailmunir, Chairperson, PDA, make the case for data governance and data sovereignty, with @KashoonLeeza on Conversations at Foothills by @ISSRA_Official: piped.video/watch?v=y-5r03kE…

This Defence Day, Pakistan Digital Authority salutes the courage and honours the sacrifices of the defenders of our borders.

On 2 September, 2026 at the Marriott Hotel, Karachi, @sohailmunir, Chairperson, PDA, participated in Pakistan Fintech Forum IV, hosted by the @pfn_org under the theme Building the Financial Future: Scale, Trust and Inclusion. The Forum brought together policymakers, regulators and fintech leaders to discuss the future of Pakistan's digital financial ecosystem. The session opened with theme-setting remarks by Kabeer Naqvi, Entrepreneur in Residence, ABHI Microfinance Bank, followed by a dialogue featuring Aamir Ibrahim, Chief Executive Officer, @jazz_worldpk, and Waqas Ul Hassan, Chief Executive Officer, @KarandaazPK. The Leadership Dialogue session, titled "Digital Public Infrastructure: Beyond Access, Towards Economic Impact", explored how digital public infrastructure moves beyond enabling access to drive entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, formalisation and sustainable growth. Dr. Sohail set out the case for the data economy. Pakistan has already built two of the three foundations that this rests on: identity through NADRA, and payments through Raast. The third is WASL, the national data exchange layer, and it is the one that turns the other two into value. It will enable a different volume of economic activity altogether. The 2% of GDP that data contributes in jurisdictions which have done this well, points to a sizable opportunity for Pakistan. Access was the first problem. Making it count is the next one. Identity establishes who you are and payments let money move, but data governance, interoperability and secure exchange are what turns inclusion into activity.

In conversation on Chatroom with Shizza, @sohailmunir, Chairperson, PDA, set out what digital reforms in the health sector are absolutely critical. The biggest issue in the health system is the load on tertiary centres. Digital transformation efforts can strengthen primary care, and the burden at the top will begin to ease. The other half of the problem is health records. An emergency admission at a hospital that cannot see your history means the emergency is delayed, or a decision is made without the necessary information. Unified health records will close that gap, and WASL, the National Data Exchange Layer, is what makes them possible. PDA is developing the Digital Health Sectoral Plan under the National Digital Masterplan. Consultations are already underway across several cities with the people who run these systems, and the focus is where he set it: enabling primary care, and creating an interoperable health data ecosystem built on trusted data exchange. Watch the full conversation here: piped.video/watch?v=t6Sq8XKq…