IT Minister Orders Nationwide IT Course Launch Immediately

Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima chaired a meeting of IT training heads, directing all provinces to immediately launch modern, internationally standardised IT and digital skills courses.

Pakistan’s federal government has moved decisively to accelerate the country’s digital workforce agenda. Federal Minister for IT and Telecom Shaza Fatima Khawaja chaired a high-level meeting of heads of IT training institutions, where a national strategy was agreed upon to equip young Pakistanis with digital skills of international standards and fast-track the development of a pipeline of technology professionals.

The government decided to speed up preparations for an IT workforce to support the growth of the digital economy, with Minister Shaza Fatima directing the immediate launch of modern IT courses across all provinces of the country.

The directive was unambiguous: all provinces were to begin international-standard training programmes without delay, with the needs of the global market, the freelancing sector, and Pakistan’s broader digital economy as the benchmarks for course design and delivery.

In a move that signals a shift toward structured accountability, Shaza Fatima also directed all IT training institutions to submit weekly performance reports to the Ministry of IT and Telecom. The instruction transforms the initiative from a policy announcement into an actively monitored programme, with ministerial oversight built directly into the rollout.

The minister was unequivocal about the government’s priorities. “Preparing young people according to the needs of the global market, freelancing sector and digital economy was the government’s top priority,” she said at the meeting.

The directive fits within a broader and rapidly expanding digital skills agenda. The government has already trained over 300,000 children in digital and technology-related skills and has set a target of training 800,000 people this year, reflecting a major push to expand Pakistan’s digital workforce.

More than 27,000 technology professionals are currently working within Special Technology Zones across the country, and 32 Special Technology Zones have been established nationwide over the past four years.

The urgency of the IT training push is also underpinned by Pakistan’s growing freelance economy. Pakistan consistently ranks among the top countries globally for freelancing revenue, yet the ecosystem has long grappled with a skills gap between what training institutions produce and what international clients demand.

By anchoring the new course directive explicitly to global market and freelancing needs, the ministry is signalling awareness of that gap and intent to close it.

Whether the combination of provincial rollout, international-standard curriculum, and weekly ministerial reporting can deliver measurable results at scale will determine whether this directive becomes a turning point or another well-intentioned policy announcement. The weekly performance reports, if rigorously reviewed, may be the mechanism that makes the difference.