Pakistan Is Set to Become the First Country to Sign the Digital and AI Compact as Shaza Fatima Heads to the Seoul Summit

ISLAMABAD: The distinction has arrived before the signature itself. Pakistan is set to become the first country to sign the Digital AI Compact, and IT and Telecommunication Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja has left for South Korea to do the work in person. She will represent Pakistan at the Global AI and Digital Summit 2026 in Seoul, which runs from October 19 to 22.

A roadmap, presented in Pakistan’s own words

The summit is hosted by the World Bank Group together with South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and its Ministry of Finance and Economy. Khawaja will take part in the AI and Digital Ministerial Meeting, where the discussion turns on Pakistan’s priorities in artificial intelligence and digital inclusion, and in a dedicated session on the compact she will present the country’s future roadmap — how Islamabad intends to advance digital transformation and AI, set out by its own minister rather than summarised by anyone else.

Google and the World Bank are on the schedule too

It is not all plenary sessions. The minister is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with a vice president of Google and to meet a vice president of the World Bank to discuss areas of cooperation. She will also join sessions on ensuring equitable access to the internet and digital services worldwide — a question that carries a particular weight back home, where access still thins out quickly beyond the big cities.

Record exports behind the pitch

None of this is happening in a vacuum. Pakistan’s IT and telecom export remittances reached a record $4.6 billion in the 2025-26 fiscal year, and under the National AI Policy 2025 the government has set itself the target of creating three million AI-related jobs by 2030. What Seoul will test is simpler than the communiques: how much of that roadmap survives the trip home and turns into work on the ground.