Youth must make most of the Daanish IT Park: PDA chief

Dr. Sohail Munir calls the park a launchpad for young coders and a step forward for Pakistan's digital economy Islamabad The Chairperson of Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA), Dr. Sohail Munir has urged the youth of Pakistan to benefit from the Daanish IT Park, inaugurated by Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on 10 October 2026 in Islamabad. The park gives Pakistan's technology sector a landmark of its own in the capital. Dr. Sohail Munir said the park is a space where youth working in the IT sector will be facilitated to further excel in their fields and to play a central role in growing Pakistan's IT and software exports. The Daanish IT park establishes that a developer in a small city has a place in the national economy, and it gives the country's IT exports somewhere to grow from. Calling it a major step toward strengthening the country's digital ecosystem, Dr. Munir credited the Prime Minister and Ms. Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication for championing the project and seeing it through. The park brings incubation centres, innovation hubs, startups, and industry leaders together under one roof, with a clear purpose: to equip young people with IT and AI skills, support new ideas, and help Pakistan compete in the global digital economy. At the inauguration, Dr. Sohail Munir said that Digital Nation Pakistan is the Prime Minister's signature initiative and the Daanish IT Park is where that vision takes physical form, and part of how it is stewarded and steered from plan to delivery. Addressing the youth directly, he said: 'To the young Pakistanis writing code in Gilgit, Gwadar or Gujranwala, this is your address. Come and build here.' The real measure of the Daanish IT Park will be the companies that start inside it and the exports that leave from it. Pakistan's technology ambitions now have more ground to build on, a signal that the country is ready to back its own talent and the new generation of startups it will produce. For a nation with one of the world's largest youth populations, that is a stake in the future. About the Pakistan Digital Authority The Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) is the statutory body established under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act, 2025, to lead Pakistan's transition to a digital nation. PDA is mandated to build secure, interoperable Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), to establish national standards for digital governance, data, AI regulation, citizen experience, and to coordinate digital transformation across federal and provincial jurisdictions. PDA drives public sector innovation and delivers simple, trusted and seamless digital services for all Pakistanis.