ITCN Asia: NTC signs new partnership with PQA

By LAHORE: Pakistan's National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) wrapped up its participation in the 28th ITCN Asia 2026 exhibition at the Karachi Expo Centre, using the three-day event to unveil in-house ICT products, convene a national roundtable on infrastructure sharing, and sign a new partnership with Port Qasim Authority. Managing Director NTC, Maj Gen Ali Farhan (R), served as guest of honour at the event's inauguration, running from September 22 to 24. NTC set up at Hall 2, where it demonstrated its ICT services and solutions to industry professionals and visitors, drawing what the corporation described as a strong response from stakeholders. In his opening remarks, Farhan stressed that Pakistan's digital transformation hinges on resilient infrastructure — pointing to optical fibre networks, data centres, stable power supply and strong cyber security as prerequisites. He also touched on NTC's role in advancing sovereign computing, data sovereignty and the broader digital ecosystem. On the sidelines of the exhibition, NTC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Port Qasim Authority covering dedicated internet services, secure connectivity, cybersecurity, cloud and data centre services, unified communications and enterprise digital infrastructure. According to the press release issued here, the center piece of NTC's participation was a national-level roundtable titled 'Neutrality of ICT Infrastructure to Support Digital Connectivity in a Cost-Effective Manner.' Farhan opened the session, delivered its keynote, and chaired the discussion that followed, which centered on building shared, efficient ICT infrastructure to meet the country's growing digital needs. Speakers included Dr. Shoab Ahmed Khan of CARE (Pvt) Ltd and PASHA; Syed Zeeshan Ali of DataVault (Pvt) Ltd; Jamil Ur Rehman of Sui Southern Gas Company; Syed Ayaz Ali of TP-Link; and Muhammad Jawad Paracha of IBM, alongside government, academic and industry representatives. Topics ranged from the national Cloud-First Policy and sovereign network control to artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. The session closed with a Q&A and concluding remarks from Farhan focused on policy recommendations and next steps for stakeholders. NTC said the event reinforced its engagement with Pakistan's ICT sector, with the corporation's public relations effort led by Director Dr Ayesha Ali supporting its outreach throughout. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026