The Present Scope For Information Technology In Pakistan

    In our country, Pakistan, computers are relitavely new and most people are not computer-literate. Computer Studies as a course was added to the Secondary School Examinations just 4 or 5 years ago and reputed institutions do not have the facilties and resources to support a computer lab because of the lack of funds. Local banks still do not have automated accounting systems. Most households still cannot afford a computer but due to the recent decrease in prices of computer perhipherals more people are buying a computer. Pakistan has a literacy rate of 36.7% so most people cannot afford a proper house, let alone a computer. This factor is depriving the people of a resource they deserve and our country is being left behind in the technology race. This affects the development of the country greatly. The standard of computer education is not good. The institutions do not have the faculty to teach computers and do not have a comprehensive and up-to-date course which results in good students losing precious years of their careers and under-employment. To combat this, the education system must be fixed and the courses should be updated on a yearly basis.

    Nowadays, people are realising the need of being computer literate and more and more institutions are being setup that offer diplomas and certificates which have no real meaning but they show the awareness that has been generated in the society. Government of Pakistan, in its 1998-99 budget, announced that 30% of the import tax on computer perhipherals has been exempted. This added to the fact that government has agreed to provide a number of institutions with computers tells us that the government is also becoming aware of this fact that for the development of the country it is necessary for the population to be computer literate. Yearly exhibitions are organized by the Computer Society of Pakistan where all the dealers are invited to exhibit their systems. This allows the general public who are interested in computers access to the latest technology in computing. An institute has recently been setup in Karachi called the Karachi Institute of Information Technology (KIIT) which is in collabration with the University Of Huddersfield, a very reputed university of the UK especially in the computer science field. This allows our students to recieve up-to-date and comprehensive education which will be accepted through out the world. Another institution known as the Asia-Pacific Institute of Information Technology-Pakistan (APIIT-PAK) has been established. This institution is affiliated with about 14 universities of the world.  This field is slowly turning into a business field with a bright future. The Karachi University has also extended its computer related facilities.

      The advent of computers in Pakistan was also in the early 90's and so it took a little while for it to take off. The main boost came when the internet started to take popularity and then IT was also popularised. As more and more companies reverted from maunual to automated system the popularity of IT increased and now major universities have introduced courses for IT. Now people have come to realise the importance of Information Technology and the scope for IT has just started to develop in recent years and  it  has reached the stage when all thecompanies are reverting   from manual to automated and computerised systems to handle their data. This means that a lot of new job openings for IT  are taking place and there is more demand then ever for IT specialists.

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