The National Assembly witnessed an awkward exchange on Friday when Parliamentary Secretary for Information Technology Sabheen Ghoury struggled to explain what 5G technology actually means, even as the government promises faster 5G internet for Pakistan.
When presiding officer Abdul Qadir Patel pressed her to define 5G for the house, Ghoury replied only that the technology would increase internet speeds. The answer fell short of any real explanation of the fifth-generation wireless standard, and another MNA stepped in and attempted to explain the term to her himself.
Ghoury went on to tell the assembly that 5G services had been launched in only 24 cities so far. She said the government was working to stabilize services in those locations before expanding 5G coverage to other cities across Pakistan, framing the current 5G rollout as a cautious first phase rather than a nationwide launch.
The exchange landed at a politically charged moment. The pace of the 5G rollout in Pakistan has become a recurring flashpoint in parliament, with lawmakers repeatedly questioning officials over persistently slow internet speeds, delayed 5G spectrum auctions, and fears that Pakistan is falling behind regional peers in 5G deployment. For critics, 5G Pakistan is already shorthand for a long-promised upgrade that keeps arriving late.
That frustration has real context. 5G, the fifth generation of mobile networks, promises dramatically higher data speeds, far lower latency, and the capacity to support smart cities, the internet of things, telemedicine, and remote work at scale. Successive governments have tied the 5G rollout to their Digital Pakistan ambitions, but repeated auction delays and infrastructure gaps have kept those ambitions largely on paper while consumers still struggle with unstable 4G service in many areas.
Friday’s moment in the National Assembly underscored a deeper concern: the officials steering Pakistan’s 5G policy struggled to articulate what the technology even is. Opposition voices and digital-rights advocates have long argued that the 5G rollout debate suffers from vague official communication, and Ghoury’s faltering answer is likely to sharpen that criticism in the days ahead.
What comes next is the question millions of mobile users are asking. The government says it wants to stabilize 5G services in the initial 24 cities first and then expand, but no firm timeline for a wider 5G launch or a completed spectrum auction has been announced. Until then, the gap between 5G promises and the lived experience of Pakistan’s internet users looks set to keep growing.
