Minister of State for IT and Telecom Shaza Fatima Khwaja accused former IT minister Dr. Umar Saif of sabotaging a deal with Paypal. She accused the former caretaker federal minister in a press conference on Tuesday.
She said that the deal with PayPal was private and Dr. Umar Saif publicized the deal before time, this action upset the company and they called off the deal. “Bringing PayPal to Pakistan was a private deal, which Dr Saif leaked before time. This action annoyed PayPal and he (Dr Umar) sabotaged it”, said Khawaja, while talking to media persons, here on Tuesday.
In response to a question regarding the slow internet connectivity in Pakistan, she said that there are several reasons for this. The minister said that insufficient spectrum, increasing number of users; load management practices of telecom operators due to expensive electricity, low investment due to issues in the opening of letters of credit (LCs) as well as faults in two submarine cables were the major reasons behind the slow internet in the country.
She also said that the auction for the 5G spectrum has also been delayed due to legal issues. Additionally, the restriction on opening LCs had a bad impact as they delayed the import of necessary telecom equipment. She claimed that Telecom operators are going for load management by reducing and restricting services during power outages instead of using fuel for generators.
Read more: Reactions pour in over VPNs slowing down internet statement
Earlier, she blamed VPNs and denied the government slowing the internet in the country, an issue widely reported nationwide.
She denied that the government did not slow down the internet speed or disrupt the internet connectivity anywhere in the country. Khwaja said that misinformation was the government trying to ‘throttle’ the internet.
The Minister of State asserted that the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) has slowed down the users’ phones.
“I can swear that the government of Pakistan did not block the internet or slow it down,” said Khawaja while addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, acknowledging the public’s outrage over the intermittent internet issues. She said that the government engaged with experts to sort out the issue.