The Higher Education Commission and provincial governments agree on IT skills programme

Here is what the announcement means for businesses, consumers and the wider technology industry.

Aug 15, 2026 at 19:32 2 min read 12.8K views

Salesforce expanded its developer programme to Pakistan on Wednesday, the latest sign that global technology companies are paying closer attention to South Asian markets.

Employees will be offered training through a partnership with NUST, the company said, with a focus on cloud engineering, data analysis and product management.

Universities are responding too. Habib University has added new courses in telecom, and enrolment in computer science programmes rose 8% this year.

The bigger picture

The challenge now is execution. Previous attempts to build large-scale technology infrastructure in the country have stalled because of financing gaps and bureaucratic delays.

"Students who learn to work with AI tools today will define the workforce of 2035."
Omar Farooq, security researcher at Jazz

The numbers tell part of the story. Freelancers in Pakistan brought in $40 million in Q2 2025, and the country remains one of the largest suppliers of online talent in the world.

The road ahead

The company said the initiative would create roughly 25 jobs over the next two years, most of them in Multan and Rawalpindi. It did not disclose the size of the investment, but people familiar with the plans put the figure at between $25 million and $750 million.

Key points

Partnership with Aga Khan University to train local engineers
Regulatory approval from the Higher Education Commission still pending
Pricing to remain unchanged until at least May
Competitors including TPL Trakker are expected to respond within months

Security experts have urged users to enable two-factor authentication and to update their apps promptly, noting that attackers increasingly target mobile-first markets.

Government officials welcomed the development. A spokesperson for the Special Technology Zones Authority said the initiative "aligns with the national digital agenda" and promised faster approvals for similar projects.

Reporting by the WritePures newsroom. Have a tip? Contact our editors.