‘Use less internet'; Parliamentary Secretary has unique solution for slowdowns
Syed Sajid Mehdi, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Division, has on Sunday urged people to use the internet "less” and for “important matters only”.
His unique suggestion was a solution to recurrent internet shutdowns and slow speed in Pakistan.
The parliamentary secretary appeared on Dawn News' Doosra Rukh, where he candidly likened the internet in Pakistan to a road that got congested as more people used it, resulting in slow traffic.
“There are large loads on our internet, [just] like on a congested road,” he said while adding, “Cars move slower if there is congestion. If 10 people use a road meant for five, it will slow everything down.”
Sajjad Mehdi also claimed that Pakistan’s fibre network only has a capacity of 15 percent compared to India’s 45 percent, stating that this is another reason for the slow internet.
Moreover, the parliamentary secretary emphasised that work was underway to resolve the issue of the internet’s slow speed across the country and it will be completed “very quickly”.
The host, Nadir Guramani, asked the secretary if he thinks that the rise in population was also the reason behind internet slowdowns.
“Like I said, if more people use the roads then of course it will slow down,” Mehdi stressed, adding that this issue would be fixed within three to four months.
Furthermore, Mehdi said that curbing what he called the “unnecessary” use of the internet would improve its speed.
“I’m not saying stop using it, but use it only for important purposes like work, and not for unnecessary purposes,” he commented.
The show host went on to ask him if he thinks that people in Pakistan were using the internet unnecessarily to which he replied that people should use the internet mostly for important work.
“It will be beneficial if people don’t use the internet too much or for negative thinking”, he said.
The parliamentary secretary also disapproved the claim that internet slowdowns were causing financial losses to the IT sector of the country.
Notably, Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@sha) Chairman Sajjad Mustafa Syed on December 3 said, “A one-hour internet slowdown might not have any significant impact on people, but disturbed services to a client in any stock market, airport service, bank, etc., in advanced countries would eventually lead to loss of confidence in Pakistan’s IT sector.”
The parliamentary secretary also denied having been informed about the loss by Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), “We have not been told officially that the shutdown has caused financial losses. Nobody has filed any requests or complaints about financial losses.
“If anyone has suffered personal losses, then that is a different matter entirely,” he concluded.