Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday inaugurated Islamabad’s National Technology Park, renaming it the Daanish IT Park and describing the facility as a major milestone for Pakistan’s digital economy and its young population.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony in the federal capital, the prime minister said the country’s first national technology facility would bring together incubation centres, innovation hubs, start-ups, small and medium enterprises, industrialists, teachers and students under one roof, equipping them with skills in information technology and artificial intelligence.
He announced that the government would not run the park itself. Instead, its day-to-day operations would be handed over to a company selected through a transparent bidding process, with local and international IT and AI firms invited to compete. “The government of Pakistan will have nothing to do with this. There will be experts and teachers here, and they will run this IT park,” he said, adding that the contract would go to the company offering the best services on the most favourable terms.
The prime minister said the park was about far more than “bricks and mortar”, describing it as an ecosystem built around innovation, vocational training and entrepreneurship. “This IT park will prove to be a milestone for Pakistan’s development and prosperity,” he said, adding that it would empower “not thousands but hundreds of thousands” of young Pakistanis with modern skills so the country could compete with developed economies.
Shehbaz linked the initiative to the Daanish school system, which provides free education to children from underprivileged backgrounds, saying the IT park would open similar doors in the digital world. He noted that Daanish school graduates had gone on to become doctors, engineers, scientists and teachers, with some pursuing higher education at universities around the world.
The prime minister acknowledged that the project had suffered “considerable delays”, noting that its foundation stone was laid in 2018. “What happened afterwards is part of history. I will not say anything about it today, because this is not an occasion for political point-scoring,” he said, while crediting the teamwork of officials and ministers who brought it to completion.
He specifically thanked Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Khan Cheema and IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja and their teams, saying he had chaired several review meetings and visited the site more than once to ensure the project was completed without further delay.
The prime minister said the Islamabad facility would serve as a model to be replicated across the country, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, once fully operational. He added that artificial intelligence and information technology could transform sectors ranging from agriculture and manufacturing to industry and mining. “God willing, this Daanish IT Park will become a mighty tree, and millions of children across the country will receive education under its shade,” he said.